ABSTRACT
The extensive literature on rural development in Kenya contains little or no analysis of financial management issues, even when focusing on the Ministry of Agriculture. Similarly, the few references to budgeting in the African literature rarely get beyond generalities. By 1981, Kenyan officials, donors, and technical assistance personnel all realized that poor financial management was a major constraint to agricultural development in Kenya. An examination of Government of Kenya budgets since 1974 suggests two points. First, the coffee boom of 1976–1978 caused budgets to increase much more rapidly than anticipated, the expansion continuing somewhat past the years of high coffee prices. Secondly, the budget for the agricultural sector was cut more deeply compared to the plan than the government budget as a whole. Kenya has a well-thought-out and carefully defined budget process, most of which is derived from its British colonial heritage.
