The Treasury considers scrapping supplementary budgets from its national expenditure cycle as part of a strategy to instill prudence in spending, Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has claimed.
Supplementary budgets are special requests for additional funding to cover unforeseen expenses during a budget cycle.
Kenya has traditionally issued two to three supplementary budgets over a financial year.
“If you notice, I am one person who believes we should kill supplementary budgets. So we are gradually moving there...previously we used to have supplementary budgets in December, November,” Mr Mbadi said in an interview.
Article 223 of the Constitution provides the authority for supplementary appropriation. It allows the government to spend money that was not originally appropriated in the annual appropriation law when appropriations are insufficient or new needs arise, subject to Parliamentary approval and limits on the amount.
“Up to now, we have not submitted a supplementary budget to the National Assembly. We will do it later this month, maybe next week, but this is February…. So you can see we have started,”Mr Mbadi said.
Records show that the Treasury has issued three supplementary budgets since Mr Mbadi took office on August 8, 2024.
For instance, the National Treasury on June 18, 2025, tabled its third supplementary budget for the 2024/25 fiscal year, less than a fortnight before the end of the financial cycle.
The third supplementary budget proposed to increase the overall budget for the year to June 30, 2025, by Sh18.9 billion, with the big winners from the mini-budget being the State House, Teachers Service Commission, the State Department of Higher Education, Internal Security, and the National Intelligence Service.
The third supplementary budget for 2024/25 was premised on missed revenue targets, but the adjustments showed increased spending by the government.
The Treasury was forced to table its first mini-budget early in the fiscal year after the rejection of the Finance Bill, 2024.
The second mini-budget was, meanwhile, forced by the underwhelming performance of new tax measures legislated in December 2024.
