Government officials gobbled up a whopping Sh27.34 billion on local and foreign travel in the last financial year, making a mockery of austerity measures put in place by President William Ruto.
A larger chunk of the Sh27.34 billion was spent on local travel (Sh18.15 billion), while the balance of Sh9.19 billion was spent on foreign travel, according to the latest report from Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakango.
The August 2024 report raises serious questions about the high expenditure on non-critical travel, mainly for non-essential engagements such as training and benchmarking, a clear indication that the circular on prudent spending was ignored.
The report also notes inconsistencies in adhering to delegation limits, as large delegations were common, as well as potential redundancy and overlaps, manifested in multiple trips to the same destinations by different ministries, government departments and agencies, suggesting a lack of coordination.
For example, numerous departments travelled to Italy and France for similar purposes, during the period in question, incurring avoidable costs.
The report shows that the state departments for Livestock Development and Crop Development sent delegations to Rome, Italy, three times each, while the State Department for Blue Economy and Fisheries and the State Department for Trade sent delegations to Arusha, Tanzania, four times and three times respectively during the same period.
Among the departments that spent the highest amounts were State Department for Foreign Affairs (Sh3.3 billion), National Assembly (Sh2.1 billion), Parliamentary Service Commission (Sh 152.3 million), Senate (Sh614.9 million), State House (Sh 298.2 million), Office of the Deputy President (Sh114.8 million), State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services (Sh115.8 million) and State Department for Diaspora Affairs (Sh484.3 million).
Others are the Judiciary (Sh203.4 billion), State Department for Labour and Skills (Sh107.5million), State Department for East African Community (Sh173.4 million) and Auditor General (Sh103.3 million).
Reads the report: “From the data, expenditure on Domestic Travel has grown from Sh10.82 billion in FY 2019/20 to Sh18.15 billion in FY 2023/24. The percentage increase between FY 2022/23 (Sh14.04 billion) and FY 2023/24 (Sh18.15 billion) was 29 percent. Similarly, the expenditure on Foreign Travel registered a 45 percent increase between FY 2022/23 (Sh6.33 billion) and FY 2023/24 (Sh9.19 billion) despite the efforts to reduce non-essential travel in FY 2023/24.”
The report goes on: “We also noted from the detailed breakdown of foreign travel expenditure that several payments were for the previous financial years, an indication of clearance of foreign travel-related pending bills, for example under the Commission of Administrative Justice there were payments made in FY 2023/24 of foreign travels made during FY 2022/23.”
Nyakang’o lamented that though her office had asked government agencies to send details of their foreign travel to review compliance, some did not submit detailed breakdowns of their expenditures, while in other cases, there were glaring discrepancies in the amount reported on foreign travel by economic line vis-a-vis the detailed breakdown.
The huge expenditure on travel comes despite a presidential circular issued by the Chief of Staff and the Head of Public Service clearly suspending “benchmarking and study visits, training and related capacity building initiatives, conferences and meetings of general participation, research, academic meetings and symposia”.
The circular was clear that delegations accompanying the President, the First Lady, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi be approved only for officials playing a direct role in the scheduled activities or programmes of the principals.
Reads the report: “The Circular, Ref: OP/CAB.308/018, presents a critical shift towards optimizing foreign travel expenditures by focusing on essential travel aligned with state obligations. However, the success of these guidelines depends on strict enforcement, centralized coordination, and periodic audits. By implementing the recommendations outlined above, the government can significantly reduce unnecessary travel costs and ensure that all foreign engagements provide tangible benefits to the country.”
Some of the delegations had between 10 and 60 people, all classified as “participants” in the events.
For instance, the report shows that Kenya’s delegation headed by the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperatives and MSMES that travelled to Burundi comprised 63 people and spent Sh50.6 million, while the spouse of the Deputy President, Dorcas Rigathi’s delegation had 18 people on a visit to Israel for six days and spent Sh13.7 million.
The report also shows that Gachagua headed a delegation of 32 people to Brussels, Belgium, at a cost of Sh16.5 million, while in another case he headed a delegation of 29 people on different dates to Dubai at a cost of Sh23.3 million.
He also headed another delegation of 27 people to Columbia on coffee reforms and another to Germany comprising 22 people.
The other notable travel expenditure included three members of Gachagua’s office who travelled to Dubai for 14 days at a cost of Sh2.9 million.
In the Executive Office of the President, five staff members travelled to Zanzibar for a planning workshop on border governance in Eastern Africa, while one person travelled to the United States for 53 days to attend a conference.
Separately, 12 people travelled to Dubai UAE for five days for physical benchmarking exercise on the modernization and transformation of the Government Press into an efficient and highly performing commercially viable entity.
Another interesting expenditure under Ruto’s office is the provision of air-tickets to the presidential taskforce on religious organizations for 12 officers to enable them travel to UK, Rwanda, US, Dubai, United States at a total cost of Sh1.2 million. The religious officers were also facilitated three other times to travel for diplomatic engagement with EAC partner states, the report reveals.
In the state Department for Gender and Affirmative Action, ten individuals were facilitated travel to New York, US, for 14 days at a cost of Sh10.8 million as part of Kenya’s delegation to the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
The State Department for Crop Development sent a delegation of 10 people to attend an IFAD-organised international function in Rome at a cost of Sh 21.3 million,
In the State Department for Trade, six people accompanied the acting director for weights and measures to attend the reconvening of the 24th Sector Council on Legal and Judicial Affairs, while another eight headed by the principal secretary attended the fourth round of the US-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership in Washington, DC, at a cost of Sh6.9 million.
In the State Department for East African Community, 15 people travelled to Magum in Serengeti district, Tanzania, for the 12th Mara Day Celebrations. Some 18 people travelled to Arusha for the Sectoral Council on Finance and Economic Affairs and a meeting of the pre-budget consultations of ministers of finance, while another 13 travelled to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Congo and Burundi for diplomatic engagements with partner states on hosting of the EAC Monetary Institute.
