A report tabled in Parliament has indicated that an extra Ksh130 million was used on the swearing-in ceremony of President William Ruto.
The Assumption of Office Committee which was in charge of the ceremony said it used KSh 330.7 million on the same; an excess of KSh130 million from the budgeted KSh200 million.
The assumption committee had set a budgetary ceiling of KSh 250 million.
“However, on account of an unprecedented number of Heads of State and government and other high-level State foreign delegations that were attending the State ceremonies, the committee’s budget was reviewed upwards with the concurrence of President-elect to KSh 330,714,647,” the committee said in the report.
According to the report, out of the KSh 330.7 million, the Office of the President spent KSh 172.44 million, Foreign Affairs (KSh 55.2 million), Ministry of Interior (KSh 35.2 million), State Department for Sports (KSh 9.4 million) and State Department for Culture and Heritage (KSh 26.9 million).
Others are the State Department for Broadcasting (KSh 27.5 million), State Department for ICT (KSh 2 million) and the Judiciary (KSh 2 million).
The report also showed that the State luncheon at State House was attended by some 7,000 guests including 19 Head of States.
“The budget for the executive office of the President was appropriated towards the fabrication and set up of the presidential dais and pavilion, the inauguration arena VVIPs dais, VIP dais that held over 3,000 persons and all the other ancillary décor and fixtures including additional screens as well as defraying the cost of hosting the state luncheon at State House,” the report added.
Ruto was sworn in on September 13 after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by Raila Odinga challenging his declaration as President-elect after the August 9 General Election.
In the petition, Raila claimed that the system was hacked to allow for original forms 34A to be deleted and replaced with doctored forms.
However, the Supreme Court dismissed the same arguing that IEBC deployed technology in accordance with the law.
“No credible evidence was provided that anyone accessed the RTS to intercept, detain or store Forms 34A before they were uploaded to the public portal. The allegations that 11,000 forms 34A were affected by staging was not proved,” Chief Justice Martha Koome stated.
The Supreme Court also noted that the Forms 34A uploaded to the IEBC portal and those presented to the National Tallying Center were the same.
“There was no significant difference between the forms 34A posted to the public portal, those presented to the National Tallying Center, and those provided to agents in various polling stations across the country; affidavits were sensational,” Koome added.
