SAM'S SENSE: Are the government's austerity measures just for show?

Three weeks ago, President William Ruto signed into law a Supplementary Appropriations Bill that enabled the government to rationalize the 2024/2025 budget.

This was necessitated by the rejected Finance Bill 2024 that meant - as the government indicated - that there would be a revenue shortfall of Ksh.344 billion, and so several expenditure plans had to be shelved including more than Ksh.120 billion worth of development plans.

As a consequence, the government faced a higher deficit of Ksh.761 billion that will have to be raised through borrowing from both external and domestic sources. Now, one may be tempted to sympathize with the government in navigating the uncharted waters.

But wait. Over the last one month, the government led by the President has been on a journey. A journey of the nation, touring different parts of the country, in what has become re-committal of promises that may have been made over the last two years.

In some of those visits, the President has announced different measures taken including change of contractors in some of the stalled projects.

In the days following the rejection of the Finance Bill by the President, several austerity measures were announced including that government advisors were going to be reduced by half.

The President stated that he would reduce the budget at the presidency, cutting the confidential vote to zero, travel budget was to be reduced as were hospitality, training, purchase of motor vehicles, renovations and others.

How then is it that the government is on an accelerated implementation of a travel budget? How much was cut? It is important to note that in most of the tours to Mt. Kenya, Nyanza and the Coast, there were not many official events.

Most of the addresses have been atop vehicles akin to campaign stopovers, which may suggest that they were really not official tours.

And then the members of the Cabinet have been going home. They call them homecoming parties. So far, the Hustlers Cabinet Secretary Wycliffe Oparanya has hosted the President in a thanksgiving for the recent ascendance. On Thursday, National Treasury CS John Mbadi had a similar event as will Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi on Friday.

How much does it cost to stage a homecoming ceremony? How much are the logistics, the travel, the accommodation, and the public address systems and more importantly, how much does it cost to mobilise for such events? Who pays for it?

In the same week, the teaching fraternity has been on a split strike, complaining of forgotten promises. Just last week, National Treasury CS John Mbadi stated that there were no resources to convert the JSS intern teachers into permanent employees. That the government was short of some Ksh.13 billion to honor the pledge which had been re-pledged by the President when he signed the Supplementary Appropriations Bill on August 5. That law allocated Ksh.18.7 billion for the JSS teachers. There is now a new promise that the conversion will happen in January 2025.

Well, there are no resources to hire JSS teachers now. But there are resources to go home. Teachers may be home, learners too may be home; and CSs are coming home too.

What is the actual cost of essential services? And what is the actual cost of luxury? And when in a dilemma, faced with scarce resources in the face of competing needs, among them striking workers, what should be the sensible thing to do? What should austerity mean?