Teachers, prison staffers, university lecturers and staff are the biggest winners in the additional Sh88 billion budget the National Treasury wants MPs to approve.
Of the amount, Sh68 billion will go to ministerial expenditure of which Sh24.7 billion is for recurrent and Sh43 billion for development.
The amounts are set to unlock salary adjustments unions have been pushing for as well as settle insurance woes, which saw hospitals turn many of them away.
The 2024-25 second supplementary estimate budget books sent to the National Assembly for approval show that Teachers Service Commission has the biggest portion of the additional provisions.
The commission has been allocated Sh17 billion more paving the way for a pay rise for teachers. The books tabled in Parliament show that Sh10 billion will go towards salary adjustments.
Basic salaries for teachers are also set to go up by Sh6.9 billion. Some Sh4.7 billion has been allocated to cater for teachers’ contributions to compulsory health insurance scheme.
Recently, teachers lamented being turned away by hospitals over insurance debts amid reports that their employers had not remitted capitation funds.
The police, who were also affected by the insurance mishaps, have been allocated an additional Sh5 billion.
A further Sh2.1 billion has been added to the police budget for international peace keeping missions, ostensibly for the Haiti mission.
University lecturers are set to get their 2021-24 collective bargaining agreement settled with part of the additional Sh6.5 billion allocated to Higher Education department.
The varsity lecturers and non-teaching staff need Sh4.3 billion for their CBA. Treasury has also provided additional amounts for police and prison officers.
