Foreign Affairs and State House are among 16 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that requested additional funding of Ksh48.8 billion for campaigns for Opposition chief Raila Odinga’s African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson bid, as well as for President William Ruto’s local visits.

The third quarterly National Government Budget Implementation Review Report for FY 2024/25, covering July 1 to March 2025 from the Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang’o, reveals that while the State agencies requested additional funding amounting to Ksh48.8 billion, Nyakang’o only approved Ksh42.22 billion.

In the report, Nyakang’o revealed that Foreign Affairs requested Ksh523.8 million to facilitate campaigns for Raila, but they only approved Ksh216.3 million.

AUC campaigns

Despite the heavy campaigns mounted by Kenya, led by Ruto and over 100 MPs attending the AUC meeting in Addis Ababa in January 2025, Raila lost the race to Djibouti’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.

On the other hand, the State House requested an additional Ksh1.5 billion to cater for utilities, rent, local presidential visits, hospitality services, fuel expenses and maintenance of motor vehicles, but Nyakang’o only approved Ksh1.15 billion.

Reads the report: “During the first nine months of FY 2024/2025, the Controller of Budget authorised a total of Ksh42.22 billion under article 223 of the Constitution. All the affected additional funding was regularised in Supplementary II budget estimates as required by Article 223 (2) of the Constitution, except for Ksh1.24 billion disbursed by the World Bank and spent by the State Department for Social Protection and Senior Citizen Affairs under the Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project.”

Nyakang’o, however, raises concerns over the irregular reliance on Article 223 of the Constitution to fund existing government programmes and settle predictable obligations, indicating weaknesses in the budget for the implementation process.

According to the report, in-year changes to programme output targets undermined performance tracking, while delays in completing multi-year development projects further hindered effective budget execution.

To address the challenges, Nyakang’o asked the National Treasury to fast-track verification and settlement of pending bills and adopt realistic revenue projections to reduce reliance on borrowing.

Reads the report: “There is a need for improved fiscal planning and enhanced revenue collection, particularly from Appropriations-in-Aid. To strengthen expenditure management, government agencies should reduce reliance on Article 223 by ensuring better upfront budgeting for known expenditures. “

Besides the two MDA, the other entities that requested additional funding include the National Police Service, which got Ksh2.3 billion to cater for the Multi-Agency Security support mission in Haiti, but CoB only approved Ksh1 billion.

Pending bills

The State Department for Roads’ request for additional funds that were to come from the Savings from Roads Annuity Fund to cater for the construction of Illasit-Njukini-Taveta Road was rejected while the State Department for Broadcasting & Telecommunication’s additional request of Ksh627.6 million to facilitate the settlement of pending bills under the Government Advertising Agency (GAA) was reduced to Ksh354.3 million.

The State Department for Public Health and Professional Standards request of Ksh1.75 billion to cater for salary arrears accrued to medical doctors arising from the implementation of the 2017-2021 CBA was approved in its entirety while the State Department for University Education request of Ksh1.5 billion required for Moi University Strategic Intervention was reduced by Ksh1 billion as only Ksh500 million was approved.

To facilitate the settlement of debt service due under guaranteed debt relating to Kenya Airways, Nyakang’o approved the request for Ksh19.6 billion