Governors send warning of expected salary delays
By Kenneth Mwenda, September 29, 2025The Council of Governors (CoG) has warned that county workers risk facing salary delays due to challenges in the rollout of the government’s electronic procurement system (e-GP).
Speaking on Monday, September 29, 2025, during the 28th Ordinary Session of the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) in Karen, Nairobi, and attended by Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, CoG Chairman Ahmed Abdullahi said the system had disrupted operations and left counties struggling to meet critical obligations.
“I know Governors here who are unable to pay salaries because the mapping of their budget in IFMIS was done wrongly and they were frozen,” he said. “There are Governors who, up to today have not been able to pay salaries. So, Your Excellency, these issues are best resolved at IBEC. In fact, it gets to a point where when I call Governors for some of these meetings, they refuse to come.”
This comes days after the National Treasury was asked to release funds meant for county governments.
According to the governors, the e-procurement system has slowed down payments, fuelled pending bills, and disrupted essential services. Abdullahi noted that some key service providers, such as fuel vendors, had already suspended supplies due to delayed payments.
“Our municipalities, if they don’t get fuel for two days, all the garbage is placed on the roads and it becomes impossible to even visit our towns,” he warned.
He stressed that governors were not opposed to digitisation but faulted the poor rollout of the system.
“We have no problem whatsoever with automation. But Your Excellency, we feel that this e-GP thing, along the road you people will either realise that you are not given the full picture and would ask to revise it, or it will be implemented with pain that was not necessary,” Abdullahi said.
Elsewhere, Machakos deputy governor accused President William Ruto of taking over county functions.
Salary review dispute
The financial strain comes at a time when county workers also missed out on a Ksh4.77 billion pay raise approved by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC). The review would have given the 226,500 county government employees an extra Ksh21,081 annually.
“The national government implemented a salary review [in the 2024/25 fiscal year] for all its employees. However, this was not effected for the county government workers due to non-allocation of resources by the National Treasury. The total amount required cumulatively is Ksh4,774,942,082 all county, state, and public officers,” Abdullahi earlier said.
He added:
“The Council demands for an increase in the Equitable share to facilitate the implementation of salary reviews for County workers as required by the law.”
SRC documents show that county staff were excluded from a wider review that granted national government employees an addition in the year to June 2025.
Wage bill Strain
Implementation of the review would have lifted counties’ wage bill to Ksh228.5 billion, accounting for 48.2 per cent of revenues and breaching the legal ceiling of 35 per cent. Counties have already spent Ksh223.77 billion on salaries and allowances in the year to June 2025, up from Ksh209.8 billion the year before.
Over the past five years, the wage bill has risen by nearly 30 per cent, or Ksh52.5 billion, as the county workforce grew from 204,600 in 2020/21 to 226,500 in 2025.
Governors argue that without additional funds, counties will continue facing pressure from wages and the impact of delayed procurement systems. They warned that unless urgent action is taken, counties risk service disruption, mounting debt, and possible strikes from unpaid workers.