Deputy President Kithure Kindiki is splashing Sh338.8 million on flights in the year ending June 2026, new disclosures have shown, even as government promises austerity measures under tight finances.
Procurement plans by the DP’s office show that he will spend Sh150.2 million flying on helicopters, Sh144 million on commercial airplanes and Sh44.6 million on chartered airplanes between July 2025 and June 2026.
The amount planned for flights is more than three times the Sh100 million budgeted for the Presidential Secondary School Bursary Scheme in the current year, or just about the Sh350 million allocated to the Women Enterprise Fund, which thousands of women rely on to get financing for businesses.
The revelations emerge at a time when the DP’s office overshot its annual recurrent budget by Sh219.3 million in just six months, spending Sh3.2 billion against an annual budget of Sh2.97 billion by December.
The spending on flights alone will also surpass the office’s overall domestic and foreign travels budget in the last financial year by Sh88.35 million, underlining the growth in non-essential expenditures in his office at a time when the government has been struggling to implement austerity measures.
During the 2024/25 fiscal year, the office spent Sh250.45 million on travels taken within and outside the country, but this is expected to grow by 35.3 percent in the current year, considering flight travels alone.
The documents, which have been uploaded on the electronic government procurement (e-GP) system, show that the DP’s office has laid down a spending plan of Sh409.66 million on transportation, storage and mail services, out of which the travels by helicopters, commercial airplanes and chartered planes are included.
Deputy President Prof. Kithure Kindiki.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group
The documents show that the office allocated a Sh150 million tender for the helicopter services to women, youth and persons with disabilities (PWDs) who will share almost equally.
The office also allocated 11 tenders valued Sh144 million for commercial airplane travels during the year and four tenders for the chartered plane services valued Sh44.6 million.
Much of the office’s spending on the travels was planned for the six-month period running from October 2025 to March 2026.
The latest data on the DP’s office spending on domestic and foreign travels showed that it spent Sh43.84 million over the three months ending September 2025.
This was 10.3 percent of the office’s total spending of Sh425.87 million during the quarter, all of which was on recurrent activities, the Controller of Budget (COB) reported.
“The gross budget allocation to the Office of the Deputy President in FY 2025/2026 amounted to Sh3.07 billion, compared to Sh3.22 billion allocated in FY 2024/2025,” Ms Margaret Nyakang’o noted in a budget report for the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
The DP’s office budget includes Sh2.97 billion allocated to recurrent activities and Sh100 million to development.
The office overshot the Sh2.97 billion budget in the first half of the financial year, spending Sh3.2 billion by end of December and exposing it to additional allocations in supplementary budgets to keep going.
The high spending by the DP’s office was witnessed at a time when DP Kindiki mounted intense campaigns for some of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidates in last year’s by-elections, majorly in the Mbeere North Constituency where he camped for days leading political rallies and grassroots engagements.
The DP’s office yesterday did not respond to questions regarding details of the planned helicopter, chartered and commercial airplanes travels, the amount spent on the areas during the first six months and a breakdown of the domestic and foreign-related travels in the documents uploaded on the e-GP.
In the budget report for the first quarter, Dr Nyakang’o raised concerns including the DP spouse’s office spending public funds though it had no budgetary allocation and the DP’s office failing to hit targets.
President William Ruto (right), Deputy President Prof Kithure Kindiki, and Housing Cabinet Secretary during a meeting with grassroots leaders from Murang’a County at State House, Nairobi.
Photo credit: PCS
“The Office of the Spouse of the DP had no budget allocation in the period under review but incurred expenditure of Sh0.27 million. Notably, the Deputy President’s services programme recorded sub-optimal performance at overall absorption rate of 14 percent, compared to the period’s target of 25 percent,” Dr Nyakang’o said.
Among activities the DP office implemented in the first three months of the current fiscal year was participating in stakeholder meetings on issues around coffee and other sectors and issuing strategic advisories.
The government has been unable to implement austerity measures aimed at cutting wastage in the public service, with spending on travels and other largesse staying high despite a directive issued three years ago.
In 2023, the Head of Public Service issued a circular suspending travels for benchmarking, trainings and capacity building, conferences and exhibitions, asking government workers to participate in such events virtually.
The directive also cut delegations in foreign travels to three where a Cabinet Secretary is involved and two for Principal Secretaries (PSs) and heads of constitutional commissions, while limiting foreign travels to a maximum of seven days, including travel dates.
“Where the CS is to be accompanied, at least one of the delegates shall be a technical officer specialised in the subject matter of the foreign engagement, with no security or personal assistants/logistics officers other than as exempted for persons with disability,” Head of Public Service Felix Koskey said.
Mr Koskey also withdrew the authority to grant approvals for foreign travels from PSs and heads of state agencies.
Despite the directive, the government has continued to splash billions of shillings on travels, standing at Sh25.45 billion in the last financial year.
Use of public funds to hire choppers and procure other air travel services among top State officials has been a recurring issue attracting public outcry, dating back to when the Jubilee administration was first elected.
The first was the hiring of a luxury private jet for President William Ruto in 2013 (then as DP) to fly across four African countries to lobby them for support against the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he had been charged alongside the then President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Dubbed the Hustler’s jet, the hiring of Bombardier 850 Challenger at a cost of Sh100 million to fly Mr Ruto to Nigeria, Gabon, Ghana and Congo in May 2013, caused public uproar, though the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) in 2021 closed the matter stating that no official at the DP’s office personally benefitted from the tender.
Another trip by President Ruto to the US in 2024 also raised public concerns after he chartered a private jet whose cost remains undisclosed, though State House said the trip had been sponsored by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
