This archive report was first published on 23 April 2020.
On April 23, 2020, the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on COVID-19, chaired by Senator Johnson Sakaja, directed National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani to appear within 24 hours to explain the Sh40 billion expenditure allocated to contain COVID-19.
The directive came after public outrage over media reports indicating that the government had already spent the funds fighting the fast-spreading virus.
Yatani failed to attend a meeting with the Senators on Thursday morning, citing a meeting at State House as the reason.
However, the National Treasury later clarified that the funds have not yet been disbursed, with the ministry stating that it had budgeted the funds to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.
The budgeted funds comprise Sh33.4 billion under recurrent and Sh6.9 billion under development expenditure.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had earlier announced various measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, including a reduction in VAT from 16 to 14 per cent, a 100 per cent relief to persons earning a gross monthly income of up to Sh24,000, and reduced personal income tax (PAYE) from 30 to 25 per cent.
