Taxpayers are set to spend an additional Sh3.1 billion to facilitate President William Ruto’s foreign trips, just two months before the end of the current financial year, documents tabled in Parliament reveal.
The State Department for Foreign Affairs has been instructed to prepare and facilitate 11 outbound trips by President Ruto between now and June 30, 2026, at a cost of Sh3.1 billion.
Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei told the National Assembly Committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations that the department has already spent Sh2.2 billion out of the Sh1.8 billion allocated in the 2025/26 budget for State Visits.
President William Ruto and First Lady Rachel Ruto disembark from their plane at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta on May 20, 2024.
Photo credit: Photo I PCS
This means the department has already exceeded its annual allocation by Sh400 million. If all the remaining 11 visits are completed, the total expenditure will balloon to Sh5.3 billion, far above the Sh1.8 billion approved by Parliament.
“To date, the State Department has spent Sh2.2 billion of the Sh1.8 billion allocated for State Visits. Further, the department has been instructed to prepare and facilitate an additional 11 outbound visits by June 2026 at a cost of Sh3.1 billion,” Dr Sing’oei said.
Dr Sing’oei made the disclosures before the committee chaired by Belgut MP Nelson Koech, while defending the department’s budget as outlined in Supplementary Budget No 1 for 2025/26.
He added that the total requirement for State Visits is Sh5.3 billion, leaving a shortfall of Sh3.5 billion that needs to be addressed by the National Treasury to ensure the President can undertake his foreign travels.
“A special intervention is needed to cover the unfunded budget gaps, both in recurrent and development votes, as part of the Supplementary Estimates No 1 for 2025/26,” Dr Sing’oei explained.
A State House report tabled in Parliament shows that between October 31, 2024 and September 22, 2025, President Ruto made 24 regional and international trips. During the same period, he hosted 10 heads of state and government, five of which were State visits.
The report, titled Progress Made in Fulfilling the International Obligations of the Republic of Kenya , indicates that Dr Ruto undertook five State visits and attended 19 conferences worldwide between October 2024 and September 2025.
Foreign travel in 2024/25 was, however, lower than the 31 trips the President made between July 2023 and June 2024. Between July 2022 and June 2024, he visited 28 foreign capitals. Of the 31 trips in 2023/24, only nine were State Visits, with the remainder being summits, conferences, or private engagements.
Kenyan President William Ruto and First Lady Rachel Ruto arrive in Washington, D.C. in the United States of America on May 22, 2024 during the historic visit.
Photo credit: PCS
In July 2024, President Ruto issued a directive banning non-essential travel and limiting delegations, following nationwide protests led by Generation Zoomers (Gen-Z) against punitive taxes proposed in the now-abandoned Finance Bill, 2024.
Meanwhile, the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o has flagged extravagant government spending, despite existing austerity measures on local and foreign travel.
In her report covering the first six months of the current financial year, Dr Nyakang’o revealed that the Executive Office of the President spent Sh768.5 million on domestic travel and Sh1.165 billion on foreign travel.
The National Government Implementation Review Report, covering July 1 to December 31, 2025, shows total travel costs of Sh7.74 billion for domestic and Sh3.13 billion for foreign travel, contradicting the 2025 Budget Policy Statement’s emphasis on expenditure reforms and cutting non-essential spending.
