Governors and Members of the County Assemblies spent billions of shillings on foreign and domestic travel, legal fees, allowances and non-priority items at a time when President William Ruto has called for prudent use of resources.
A report from the controller of budget shows that there was excessive expenditures by county governments on travel, which may be wasteful, amounting to Sh17.6 billion, comprising Sh15.28 billion on domestic travel and Sh2.32 billion on foreign travel.
The county governments that reported the highest expenditure on domestic travel were Turkana, at Sh943.44 million; Nairobi City Sh861.57 million, Machakos county at Sh652.76 million, West Pokot, Sh585.2 million, and Nakuru at Sh544.13 million.
High expenditure
“Further, an analysis of foreign travel shows that county governments with the highest expenditure were Nairobi City at Sh328.33 million, Machakos at Sh148.68 million, Kericho at Sh105.8 million and Nakuru at Sh102.89 million. County governments are advised to minimize travel expenditures by holding activities within the headquarters and allocate the funds to key development programmes.”
The report says that the County Assemblies spent Sh1.59 billion on MCAs sitting allowances against an approved budget allocation of Sh1.85 billion during the reporting period.
This expenditure translated to 85.5 per cent of the approved MCA sitting allowance budget, an increase from 79.9 per cent in Financial year 2022/23 when Sh1.34 billion was spent.
In Governor Johnson Sakaja’s Nairobi county for instance, the report shows apart from domestic travel, the county spent billions of shillings on garbage collection and legal fees.
On garbage collection, the report shows that the county spent Sh 1.563 billion while on Legal fees/Dues, arbitration, and compensation they spent Sh 941.86 million. Expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh861.57 million and comprised Sh329.21 million spent by the County Assembly and Sh532.36 million by the County Executive.
Foreign travel
Expenditure on foreign travel amounted to Sh328.33 million and comprising Sh127.76 million by the County Assembly and Sh200.57 million by the County Executive
In Moses Cheboi’s Baringo county, the county spent Sh324.19 million on domestic travel comprising Sh154.02 million spent by the County Assembly and Sh170.17 million by the County Executive. Expenditure on foreign travel amounted to Sh46.41 million.
The report shows that the county executive has visited about countries including South Korea five times, China three times, Turkey two times, Ghana, Arusha and Dubai one time while the MCA’s have made eight trips to different part of the world including Arusha five times, USA, Turkey, China, Burundi, UAE and UK one time, Singapore four times, and Dubai two times.
The report says that the County Assembly spent Sh 47.71 million on committee sitting allowances for the 45 MCAs against the annual budget allocation of Sh49.90 million translating to Sh88,353 per MCA.
In Hillary Barchok’s Bomet county the report shows the county spent Sh 69 million for the renovation/completion of dispensaries/pit latrines.
On domestic travel, the county spent Sh 224.47 million comprising Sh130.53 million spent by the County Assembly and Sh93.94 million by the County Executive. Expenditure on foreign travel amounted to Sh50.00 million and comprised.
