Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o.
A new report has exposed wanton largesse by county executive officers and ward reps gobbling up billions in domestic and foreign travels at the expense of development programmes.
The report by the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o reveals that the officers spent more than Sh3 billion in only three months between July and September 2023.
According to the damning report covering the first quarter of the financial year ending June 2024, the county officials’ preferred foreign destinations include Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, United States and Turkey.
Within the continent, Arusha in Tanzania and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia were the number one destinations for the officers, especially for MCAs, for their training.
Worryingly, 12 counties blew up more than Sh100 million on domestic and foreign travels in only three months.
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The 12 counties are Migori, Nairobi, Kajiado, Kericho, Machakos, Nandi, Kitui, Nyeri, Turkana, Narok, Nyamira and Nyandarua.
During the period under review, Migori County was the biggest spender, blowing up Sh184.61 million on both domestic and foreign travels, with Sh181.9 million being spent on local travel.
Expenditure on foreign travel amounted to Sh2.71 million incurred by the Assembly traveling to Tanzania twice and Norway.
“The expenditure on foreign travel includes those incurred in FY 2022/23 but paid in the current financial year,” said Dr Nyakang’o.
Nairobi County came second with Sh167.80 million spent on domestic travel, with the Assembly accounting for Sh94.92 million and Sh78.88 million by the Executive.
Expenditure on foreign travel by the assembly amounted to Sh11.99 million comprising Sh8.94 million by the Assembly and Sh3.05 million by the Executive.
Shockingly, the report indicated that there was no approved exchequer request for foreign travel for both the Assembly and the Executive at the end of the first quarter.
Machakos County spent Sh104.41 million on both domestic and foreign travel where foreign travel amounted to Sh2.93 million on a trip by eight MCAs and staff to Arusha in July.
During the period, Kitui County spent Sh129.4 million on both domestic and foreign travel with the Assembly visiting Turkey more than twice, UK, and Australia.
Nyeri County Executive officers visited New York, USA while assembly went to Arusha thrice and Australia blew up Sh15.35 million while the domestic travel gobbled up Sh85.97 million for a total of Sh101.32 million.
Their Nyandarua neighbours also spent Sh109.55 million with domestic travel taking up Sh101.06 million and Sh8.49 million on foreign travel with the Executive going to Dubai and assembly to Addis.
During the period, Nandi County also spent Sh132.79 million on traveling where Sh120.57 million went to domestic travel and Sh12.22 million on foreign travel with the assembly going to Addis and the Executive Paris, France and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Nyamira County spent Sh115.14 million on both domestic and foreign travels with Sh109.04 million spent on the former and Sh6.1 million on the latter.
Narok County also crossed the Sh100 million mark blowing up Sh120.52 million with domestic travel accounting for Sh108.08 million and foreign travel expenditure Sh12.44 million incurred entirely by the Executive who travelled to Tanzania, Ghana and Switzerland.
For Kajiado County, domestic travel expenditure amounted to Sh124.37 million with the Executive blowing up Sh76.67 million and the assembly Sh47.60 million.
Also crossing the Sh100 million mark was Kericho County which spent Sh106.12 million on domestic and foreign travel.
However, the Sh12.64 million on foreign travel by the county assembly was an outstanding bill from the previous financial year paid to suppliers for the air ticket. The county executive traveled to Ghana.
Turkana County was another biggest spender with foreign and domestic travel amounting to Sh107.83 million where the latter took up Sh96.72 million and foreign travel Sh11.11 million.
At the same time, 13 counties did not spend on foreign travel, only expending their funds on domestic travel.
West Pokot County spent Sh82.84 million on domestic travel but did not report any expenditure on foreign travel.
The same scenario obtained at Tharaka Nithi County where domestic travel spending hit Sh47.13 million comprising Sh42.23 million spent by the assembly and Sh4.90 million by the Executive.
Trans Nzioa County also spent Sh70.55 million on domestic travel with the assembly spending Sh40.28 million and the Executive Sh30.27 million.
Uasin Gishu County’s expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh95.54 million comprising Sh55.59 million spent by the assembly and Sh39.95 million by the Executive.
Mandera County spent Sh27.44 million on domestic travel, Kirinyaga County Sh32.99 million, and Kisii County Sh54.91 million.
During the period under review, Baringo County spent Sh26 million on domestic travel with the Executive accounting for Sh15.82 million and Sh10.25 million by the County Assembly. The county did not, however, report any expenditure on foreign travel.
“The office of the Controller of Budget, however, noted there were pending requisition for foreign travel by the County Assembly as at the end of the period,” said Dr Nyakang’o.
Homa Bay spent Sh67.06 million on domestic travel with the Executive gobbling up Sh43.34 million and the assembly Sh23.72 million.
During the period, Isiolo County’s expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh75.51 million comprising Sh52.61 million by the Executive and Sh22.90 million by the assembly.
Kakamega County also did not travel outside the country but spent Sh31.53 million on domestic travel expended by the County Executive.
Bungoma County spent Sh73.67 million on domestic travel with the Executive taking the lion’s share of the expenditure spending Sh66.64 million and the assembly Sh7.03 million.
On the other hand, Elgeyo Marakwet County spent Sh44.98 million on domestic and foreign travels with only Sh2.97 million spent on the latter.
Governors Johnson Sakaja (Nairobi), Wavinya Ndeti (Machakos), Gideon Mung’aro (Kilifi) are among the 10 county bosses who have not spent a cent on development between July and September 2023.
The assembly visited Australia and Dubai in July and were in Dubai again between September 26 and October 3, 2023.
For Embu County, the expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh30.15 million with the assembly spending Sh24 million and the Executive Sh6.15 million. MCAs spent Sh1.02 million on foreign travel going to Tanzania, Burundi and Botswana.
Garissa County spent Sh30.6 million traveling with Sh26.31 million expended on domestic travel and Sh4.29 million on foreign travel with the assembly going to Zambia and Britain.
Kiambu County spent Sh97.8 million on domestic and foreign travel with the assembly blowing up Sh85.28 million and the Executive Sh0.79 million visiting Kigali, Dar es Salam and Germany.
During the period, Kilifi County expended Sh62.47 million with the assembly leading the pack spending Sh42.92 million on domestic travel while the Executive expended Sh13.3 million of Sh14.4 million foreign travel. The foreign travels took the officers to Dubai twice, Singapore, Slovakia twice and Italy.
Samburu County assembly incurred Sh6.13 million on travel to Dubai and Israel while another Sh51.73 million on domestic travel by both the Executive and the assembly.
Siaya County largely spent on domestic travel with Sh50.55 million expended while Sh3.57 million went to foreign travels on a trip to Iran in September.
For Taita Taveta County, assembly officers went to Dubai, South Korea, Israel and Tanzania while the Executive went to the USA spending Sh17.7 million in the process.
Domestic travel expenditure amounted to Sh29.10 million comprising Sh11.46 million spent by the Assembly and Sh17.63 million by the Executive.
Tana River County spent Sh28.65 million on both domestic and foreign travels with Sh7.4 million going to the latter where the Executive went to the USA and Turkey in September 2023.
Bomet County spent Sh70.25 million on both domestic and foreign travel with the Executive travelling to Canada, Norway, Singapore, Colombia, Tanzania and Mozambique gobbling up Sh42.45 million in the process.
On the other hand, the county assembly kept it within the continent traveling to Tanzania and Ethiopia taking up Sh27.80 million.
Busia County spent Sh56.43 million on both domestic and foreign travels with Sh49.38 million going to domestic travel while Sh7.05 million going to foreign travel with the Executive taking up Sh27.13 million and assembly Sh22.25 million.
On foreign travels, the Executive went to New York and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia while the Assembly went to only Addis.
“The budget allocation for the recurrent expenditure for the County Assembly was above the ceiling provided in law,” said the CoB.
During the period, Mombasa County incurred Sh25.44 million on domestic travel while the assembly spent Sh17.89 million on foreign travel to Dubai, Singapore, Turkey, Switzerland.
Murang’a County’s expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh72.78 million while expenditure on foreign travel was Sh12.45 million incurred by the Executive traveling to Singapore, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany.
Nakuru County spent Sh63.61 million on domestic travel and Sh9.66 million expenditure on foreign travel by the assembly visiting Arusha, Uganda three times and Indiana, USA.
Vihiga County spent Sh55.63 million on domestic and foreign travel with the assembly blowing Sh50 million while the expenditure on foreign travel amounted to Sh2.26 million by the Executive who visited Zanzibar and New York.
During the period, Wajir County spent Sh29.7 million on both domestic and foreign travel with expenditure on foreign travel was Sh5.42 million incurred by the assembly traveling to Dubai in July to a workshop on board governance.
Kwale County Executive spent Sh37.38 million on domestic travel while foreign travel amounted to Sh0.58 million on travel to Dar es Salam.
For Laikipia County, domestic travel expenditure amounted to Sh48.16 million while foreign travel expenditure amounted to Sh9.93 million with the Executive going to Israel, while the Assembly visited Tanzania, Malaysia, Australia, Dubai, and Zanzibar for training.
Lamu County was also not left behind spending Sh11.29 million on domestic travel and Sh17.28 million on foreign travel with the assembly going to Dubai three times and Dar es Salaam.
Makueni County spent Sh54.1 million on domestic travel while foreign travel expenditure amounted to Sh6.19 million with the assembly going to the USA, Singapore and Australia.
For Marsabit County, expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh41.34 million while Sh819,201 was incurred by the Executive on travel to Mauritius to attend an African Governance Award Conference.
Meru County spent Sh86.32 million on domestic travel and sh2.19 million on foreign travel by the assembly who went to Australia and Arusha, Tanzania.
During the period, Kisumu County spent Sh57.53 million on domestic travel and Sh8.26 million on foreign travel with the Executive visiting Morocco and the assembly Russia and Norway.
