Foreign Affairs CS Amina Mohamed told Parliament that the President requires Sh1 billion to undertake an estimated 10 additional visits abroad given that “there will be validation visits after the August 8 General Election.”
Ms Mohamed said the Deputy President will need Sh500 million more for his trips across the globe.
The Foreign Affairs ministry is seeking an additional Sh1.5 billion to cater for the President and his deputy’s trips abroad.
Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed told Parliament that the President requires Sh1 billion to undertake an estimated 10 additional visits abroad given that “there will be validation visits after the August 8 General Election.”
“An average trip costs Sh50 million and we have a conservative estimate of 10 additional visits,” she told the National Assembly’s Defence and Foreign Relations Committee during the scrutiny of the ministry’s budget for 2017/18.
Ms Mohamed said the Deputy President will need Sh500 million more for his trips across the globe.
“In the past, we have had to charter planes to cater for the DP’s trips abroad,” she said, adding that her ministry had been instructed to incorporate the deputy president’s official trips into the next budget.
Dr John Makumi, the State House administration secretary, was put to task at a separate committee to explain why Deputy President William Ruto was facing difficulties in travelling abroad to undertake visits delegated to him by the President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“We want to know why when the President delegates a foreign visit to the DP; there is a problem between Foreign Affairs ministry and the DP office in terms of funding.
“We are told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not co-operating. There are hiccups here and there and we raised the issue with the Treasury on this matter,” Asman Kamama, who chairs Administration and National Security committee that oversights the presidency asked.
He sought to know why Foreign Affairs ministry avails money when Mr Kenyatta travels abroad, but pushes the burden to the Treasury when Mr Ruto is undertaking overseas journeys delegated by the President.
“When the President is going abroad, Foreign Affairs has money, but when the DP is going they say they have problems with money being released from the Treasury,” Mr Kamama said.
Dr Makumi said the issue had arisen several times and that the Treasury had written to the principal secretary for Foreign Affairs directing that it should finance Mr Ruto’s travels.
In 2015, Kenyans reacted sharply to news that Mr Kenyatta and his deputy spent Sh2.1 billion in foreign travels and questioned the benefits of such travels to the economy.
Ms Mohamed said an additional Sh2 billion is required to promote Nairobi as a diplomatic and economic hub through hosting of a regional conferences and African Union summits.
“The President has made an undertaking for Kenya to host two major conferences-The Assembly of Heads of State and Government of International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the Assembly of the African Union Heads of State and Government (AU) Summit,” she said.
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