President Uhuru Kenyatta’s swearing-in ceremony on Friday received a positive twist after the planning committee announced that it had managed to raise enough funds to finance the event.
On Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service, Joseph Kinyua announced that plans for the much-publicised event were going on smoothly.
playThe Committee on Assumption of the Office of President, led by Joseph Kinyua, addresses the press at Kasarani Sport Stadium
Kinyua spoke a day after Government Spokesman Eric Kiraithe had raised the red flag over cash shortage facing the Committee on Assumption of the Office of President, which is legally mandated with the role of preparing the swearing-in ceremony of a head of state.
"As of yesterday evening, they were struggling and Treasury does not want to hear about money. Officers in charge of protocol and committee on Assumption of the Office of President are really crying."
"The committee is still negotiating on the budget with Treasury. The inauguration will be a freaky affair and the committee is struggling to do everything which would enable the event definitely meet the basic standard," Kiraithe complained on Thursday.
playGovernment spokesman Eric Kiraithe (Twitter)
However, Kinyua, who also chairs the Committee on Assumption of the Office of President, stated that team had managed to gather enough funds to fully finance what he termed as a modest budget of “slightly over Sh300 million”.
“We have managed to get funds for our budgets, it is slightly over Sh300 million because we don’t want to be seen as wasting public money," Kinyua remarked while inspecting the Kasarani grounds.
The Government spokesman had explained the shortage as arising from the fact that the government had in the recent past failed to effectively collect revenues, due to the prolonged electioneering period.
