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Salary budget for top-level state staff drops by Sh600m
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o.
Salaries allocated to top-level government officials have fallen by Sh600 million in the current fiscal year after the controller of budget (CoB) raised concerns about over-budgeting by the National Treasury.
The budget for salaries of state officers, who are paid through the consolidated fund services (CFS), dropped from Sh4.74 billion in the year ending June 2024 to Sh4.14 billion in the current fiscal year.
Officers paid through the CFS include the president, the deputy president, Cabinet secretaries, governors, MPs, speakers of national and county assemblies and their members, and heads of constitutional commissions and independent offices.
“The decline is attributed to implementing a recommendation by the controller of budget that budgeted salaries and allowances of the constitutional office holders be aligned to the gazetted remuneration by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission in previous budget implementation review reports,” said CoB Margaret Nyakang’o.
In the current fiscal year’s budget in June last year, the Treasury had allocated Sh4.21 billion for the state officers’ salaries, which was later revised downwards to Sh4.14 billion.
The Sh4.14 billion was Sh600 million lower than the Sh4.74 billion that the Treasury budgeted for the officers’ salaries in the last fiscal year, triggering concerns from Nyakang’o who complained that the Treasury was budgeting up to three times the actual salaries paid to the state officers.
Public information
“When I was doing the budget for CFS, where I am paid from, I found out that my salary was budgeted at three times what I am paid. I am the only state officer in my institution so there is nothing like confusion there. I asked and I have not received the answer to date,” Nyakang’o told the National Dialogue Committee in November 2023.
All state officers’ salaries are gazetted by the SRC and are thus public information.
Between July 2024 and March 2025, the Treasury spent Sh2.97 billion on salaries to the officials, up from Sh2.49 billion that was spent during a similar period in the last fiscal year.
Among institutions with many state officers, that received the most salaries from the account, were the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) which got Sh2.3 billion, the Public Service Commission (PSC) (Sh90.9 million), and the SRC (Sh76.1 million).
Treasury also released Sh12.9 million through the account to pay the president and his deputy’s salaries, Sh40.7 million was remitted from the account towards the officers’ housing levy contributions, and Sh1.38 million for national social security fund (NSSF) contributions.
