The Kenyan government has spent Kes.2.1 billion on the Multinational Security Support mission in Haiti, despite previous assurances that no taxpayer money would be used for the peace mission.
A letter from the Treasury to the National Assembly revealed that the government allocated a total of Kes.17.6 billion under Article 223, which allows spending without parliamentary approval. Of this amount, Kes.2 billion was directed toward supporting Kenya’s peacekeeping efforts in Haiti.
This disbursement, made on September 18th, has raised concerns due to the earlier commitment that taxpayer funds would not fund the mission.
In response, Treasury CS John Mbadi clarified that the funds used would be reimbursed by the United Nations.
“We are spending this money on behalf of the UN. Since these are our officers, we make the payments from our exchequer,” he explained.
Mbadi emphasized that while Kenya initially bears the cost, the UN will refund the expenses. He also noted that the expenditure, though not in the budget, would be accounted for in supplementary budgeting, reflecting both income and expenditure as required by law.
“We pay and they refund. However, we must recognize the expenditure because it was not included in the budget. The law mandates that no more than two months should pass, and when we do supplementary budgeting, we will reflect it as both income and expenditure,” Mbadi added.
