MPs resume Tuesday to start on ‘Budget season’

Processing of budgets is set to rank high on the agenda as MPs begin the third Session of the 12th Parliament on Tuesday.

The MPs are expected to start the scrutiny of the supplementary budget as well as the 2019/2020 spending plan once the Treasury tables them for processing.

“This is the season for Budget. We expect the supplementary budget to be tabled immediately we reconvene by the Treasury secretary Henry Rotich,” Aden Duale, the Leader of majority told Business Daily.

Mr Duale said the National Assembly also expects Mr Rotich to table the 2019/2020 Budget Policy Statement (BPS) whose deadline is February 14 as set out in the Constitution.

“We expect to transact a number of bills like the Insurance Bill that we didn’t finish in the last session as well as to receive several new bills from the Executive,” Mr Duale said in a phone interview.

The National Assembly is expected to deliver a heavy legislative agenda that President Uhuru Kenyatta requires to anchor his legacy projects under the “Big Four Agenda.”

The House will also work on a number of bills that were published but were not transacted during the last session.

The National Assembly took a two-month Christmas recess in December after passing 11 bills that were assented to by the President, six that were awaiting assent, 17 that were forwarded to the Senate while two are awaiting committee stage and 16 that are marked for Second Reading.

Four others were referred to the Budget and Appropriations Committee, pending scrutiny before tabling for debate while another four were withdrawn to pave the way for consensus building before they are reintroduced for debate.

The lawmakers will also be receiving addition load from Mr Kenyatta who on New Year’s Eve outlined a number of key reforms he intends to present to Parliament.

They include laws touching on taxation, access to credit and measures to enable entrepreneurs adopt modern technology in to enhance productivity and competitiveness. “In 2019, I promise you (entrepreneurs) that my Administration will make every possible effort to take practical measures to make it essasier for you to grow your business,” Mr Kenyatta said in his New Year message to Kenyans.

He also promised to fast-track the implementation of affordable and decent housing, affordable healthcare, food and nutritional security and manufacturing through enactment of laws.

The House will also be expected to amend laws governing the education sector to accommodate the President’s policy shift on 100 percent transition from primary to secondary education.