Treasury CS unveils new measures to beef up security
By Regina Manyara
Enhancing security within and along Kenya’s boarders is among top priorities in the 2017/2018 fiscal year.
24 .8 billion shillings has been earmarked for modernization and equipping of security apparatus, 12 billion shillings for intensifying security measures internally while 8.1 billion shillings has been set aside for leasing of police vehicles.
The police are also set to benefit from comprehensive medical cover and group life insurance worth 5.1 billion shillings and 1.7 billion shillings respectively.
Security personnel in the country are a happy lot following the presentation of the 2017/2018 budget that has among others introduced a raft of measures to beef up security in the country.
To police mobility and security, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has allocated 8.1 billion shillings for leasing police vehicles to ease movement and increase efficiency in service delivery, 24.8 billion shillings on the other hand has been earmarked for modernization and equipping of the police and military force while 12 billion shillings will be used to further enhance internal security measures in the country.
Rotich noted that security measures undertaken in the past fiscal year have seen cases of insecurity significantly drop especially after the setting up of Closed Circuit Television monitors in major crime hot spots.
At the same time 2 billion shillings has been set aside to improve border security in light of growing concern over rising conflict in Kenya’s neighboring countries.
1.7 billion shillings and 5.1 billion shillings are to cater for group life insurance and comprehensive medical cover for security personnel respectively.
In order to fast track investigations and give credible data, National Treasury has allocated 600 million shillings to go towards the construction of a fully-fledged forensic lab.
The plan to develop 20,000 new housing units for the Police is underway and National Treasury has allocated 1.4 billion shillings for the construction of 1,500 housing units for the Police and Kenya Prisons in Nairobi County.
That notwithstanding the tourism sector has received a shot in the arm following the allocation of 1 billion shillings to boost tourism recovery efforts launched in the last financial year.
The sector has further received 1 billion shillings for marketing initiatives in new markets, with a 600 million kitty for loaning to hoteliers while 100 million shillings will be used in the rehabilitation of the fort Jesus Tourist site in Mombasa County.
Efforts to revive the tourism sector have also received a boost with locally assembled tour vehicles being exempted from VAT.
