Changes in Supplementary Budget I for FY 2020/2021: What they say about Kenya’s priorities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Abraham Ochieng joined the International Budget Partnership (IBP) in June 2020 and is based in Nairobi, Kenya. Abraham leads the engagement with duty bearers at the national and sub-national levels. He supports IBP Kenya’s partners to engage duty bearers at both levels of government while also working closely with other civil society organization partners to engage with the duty bearers.

Prior to joining IBP Kenya, Abraham was the Emergency Advocacy Coordinator at Save the Children, Kenya Country Office. He managed engagement with duty bearers in the Northern Kenya Counties to advocate for better disaster preparedness by increasing budgetary allocations towards Disaster Risk Management and the establishment of Emergency Funds.

Abraham holds a B.A. from Kenyatta University with a Major in Economics and a Minor in Sociology.

John is a Senior Program Officer at the International Budget Partnership Kenya (IBPK). He joined IBP in October 2012 just as Kenya’s ambitious devolution program was taking off. John leads IBPK’s research and analytical work in Kenya, and he is part of the team that works to promote budget transparency and to improve public engagement on how the government raises and spends public resources.

He has done extensive research on Kenya’s public finance system for evidence generation that IBP uses to provide technical support to civil society organizations and, in some cases, government agencies. John’s research focuses on equitable revenue sharing mechanisms, equity in government expenditure, social protection, budget credibility, public participation in budgets, sub-national budget transparency, among other areas. His role also includes supporting capacity building and the publication of guides and tools that IBPK uses to improve community engagement with national and sub-national government budgets. John also plays a role in coordinating IBP’s programmatic work in Kenya, including supporting fundraising and administrative tasks.

John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), an MBA in Strategic Management from the Kenya Methodist University, and a professional award on Decentralization and Local Governance from SOAS University of London.

Before joining IBP, John worked with Twaweza East Africa as an Associate Analyst, where he helped to build the Kenya Budget Explorer, a centralized budget portal, to improve citizens’ access to budget information.  He is a big data enthusiast, a happy bee farmer, and a part-time historian.