Kenya's Finance Ministry on Thursday presented a €26 billion budget aimed at reviving an economy devastated by the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 2022-2023 Budget , announced four months before national elections , also includes investments of several billion dollars in infrastructure projects driven by outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta , mostly financed by China .
This budget aims "to put the economy back on a more sustainable growth path ," Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani told Parliament. He said the Kenyan economy is expected to grow by 6% this year, compared to 7.6% the previous year. In 2020, GDP contracted by 0.3%, the first decline since 1992.
The 3.3 trillion shilling (26 billion euros) budget clearly illustrates the dilemma facing the government: between increasing the purchasing power of Kenyans and replenishing state coffers through tax increases. Ukur Yatani thus plans to reduce the deficit to 6.2% of GDP, compared to 7.5% last year.
If the budget is approved by Parliament, the government will also allocate 146 billion shillings (€1.1 billion) to the "Big Four" program , which sets four priorities for the country: health , housing , food security , and industrial development . Kenya has been severely affected by the global coronavirus pandemic , which has reduced tourism revenue, a key driver of the economy.
In 2020, over 700,000 people lost their jobs, and Kenyans continue to face high prices for everyday goods such as food and fuel, while drought affects several regions of the country. This is the last budget presented under the presidency of Uhuru Kenyatta , as the constitution limits the number of presidential terms to two.
