Public Participation Must Go Beyond Budget Approval, Says Child Rights Advocate
Elijah Bonyo, Advocacy Lead for World Vision ,addressing the media on the FY2025/2026 National Budget from a child rights perspective at Fair View Hotel.
As Kenya edges closer to the approval of the 2025/2026 national budget, stakeholders Including World Vision Kenya, are calling for deeper public engagement that transcends budget formulation and delves into implementation and tracking of government financial commitments especially those concerning children’s rights.
Speaking during a forum engagement, Advocacy Lead, Elijah Bonyo from World Vision Kenya emphasized that public participation must not end at submitting views on proposed budgets. “We must ask ourselves: what are financial matters? Is it just about the budget being approved? No,” Bonyo noted. “We have Auditor General reports from past years 2023/2024 that tell us what was allocated, what was released, and what was spent.
That’s where public scrutiny should begin.”Bonyo urged Kenyans to analyze budget performance through the lens of accountability. “For instance, if the government commits KSh 2.6 billion to support vulnerable families or KSh 16 billion to establish a Child Welfare Fund, are those funds actually disbursed and utilized as promised? That’s what public participation should interrogate.”
Highlighting Kenya’s commitments to end violence against children, Bonyo cited specific pledges made by the government in November 2024. These include training 100,000 teachers on psychosocial support and positive discipline, enhancing digital safety in schools, and revising the Children’s Services Act.
“These are tangible commitments. The question is, how much has been allocated to realize them and is that money being tracked?”
He applauded the National Treasury for its 2025/26 budget guidelines that, for the first time, explicitly call for child-sensitive budgeting. The guidelines urge ministries, departments, and agencies to identify and prioritize child rights and gender-responsive interventions.
However, Bonyo questioned whether the final budget estimates reflect these priorities.Citing the proposed KSh 900 million cut in primary school capitation, Bonyo expressed concern. “Children and parents alike have raised the alarm over delays in disbursement of capitation funds. A reduction of this magnitude contradicts the government’s own promise of free and compulsory basic education.”
Conversely, he acknowledged positive developments, such as an increase of KSh 700 million for recurrent expenditure in the State Department for Children’s Services, and KSh 160 million allocated for public participation projects in education.
Bonyo called on citizens including children to scrutinize budget adjustments, hold MPs accountable, and ask why specific allocations have been increased or reduced. “Public finance is a constitutional matter. The Constitution demands that citizens be involved not just when proposals are tabled, but throughout the budget cycle.”
