State House's insatiable appetite to spend without the approval of the National Assembly continues unabated with Sh4 billion request in additional funding for the 2025/26 financial year given the go-ahead by the National Treasury as Controller of Budget (CoB) Dr Margaret Nyakang’o raises alarm.
The constitution provides for additional funding within the national government in cases where the appropriated sums are not enough to run the length of the fiscal year or an emergency or a need which is unavoidable like drought, floods, pandemic for which no sums were allocated, has arisen.
However, the State House request, which is not an emergency and could therefore wait until the next budgeting cycle but has been explored under Article 223 of the constitution nonetheless, may have come too soon.
This even as fiscal analysts at the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) warn that the request is an abuse of the constitution and borders on fiscal indiscipline by mandarins at the National Treasury as it diminishes budget credibility.
Documents submitted to the National Assembly by National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi seeking the MPs’ post-facto approval of the request, shows that State House first sought Sh2 billion “to cater for other operating expenses,” which are not emergencies, on September 8, 2025.
State House, Nairobi
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
“Since the approval of the financial year 2025/26 budget, the National Treasury has granted additional funding requests and disbursements to Ministries, Departments and Agencies in accordance with the constitution,” says CS Mbadi in documents presented to the National Assembly for regularization of the expenditure.
Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning John Mbadi.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
“In this regard, please find attached a schedule of the additional expenditure approvals granted under Article 223 of the constitution for your necessary action,” the CS continued.
The State House’s key role is to support the President in achieving his constitutional responsibilities.
The budget allocation to the State House in the financial year 2025/26 as approved by the National Assembly in June 2025 was Sh8.58 billion, compared to the cumulative Sh12.07 billion allocated in the financial year 2024/25.
Dr Nyakang’o in documents before parliament, warns that although State House recorded a strong performance, achieving an overall absorption rate of 55 percent, which is well above the first-quarter average of 25 percent, it runs the risk of depleting its budget midstream.
“Whereas, this reflected efficient budget execution, it also presented a risk of budget depletion before the end of the financial year 2025/26 leading to budget non-credibility,” warns Dr Nyakang’o.
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
Article 223 of the constitution allows the national government to access additional funding during the budget implementation by spending money that has not been appropriated by the National Assembly.
However, this only applies if the amount appropriated by the National Assembly for any purpose, is insufficient or a need for unbudgeted expenditure arises for which no amount has been appropriated, or money has been withdrawn from the Contingencies Fund (CF).
Although Article 223 (3) states that the approval of the National Assembly under “this Article shall be sought within two months after the first withdrawal of the money,” from the Consolidated Fund (CF), more than three months after the first withdrawal, no approval has been sought.
President William Ruto chairs a Cabinet meeting at State House, Nairobi.
Photo credit: PCS
With the National Assembly, currently on a long Christmas recess and therefore yet to approve the first Sh2 billion additional funding request, the State House went ahead and sought for the approval of another Sh2 billion under Article 223 of the constitution.
Should the National Assembly approve the cumulative Sh4 billion additional funding sought separately, it means that within the first six months of the 2025/26 fiscal year, the State House budget would have already hit Sh12.58 billion, more than what was allocated in the 2024/25 fiscal period.
A member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) of the National Assembly, who did not want to go on record, revealed to the Nation that the National Treasury requested that the approval of the Sh4 billion requests done in two batches, be processed together.
“We were determined to approve the initial Sh2 billion as request that came before we proceeded on the Christmas recess. However, an intervention was made by the National Treasury and we were told to hold and approve the two requests together,” said the BAC member.
This as a PBO analyst who requested anonymity warned that “continued abuse of Article 223 of the constitution runs the risk of discrediting the budget.”
“The reason behind the delayed approval of the first request is so that it doesn’t appear that there are so many additional expenditure requests from the State House,” the PBO analyst said.
State House affairs include coordination of State House functions and administration of statutory benefits for the retired presidents and deputy presidents.
In its expenditure plans for the year, the Coordination of State House functions got Sh7.23 billion in recurrent and Sh894.91 million development budget.
Within the first quarter of the current financial year, the coordination of State House functions had incurred Sh4.7 billion, which includes Sh4.45 billion in recurrent budget and Sh235.10 million on development.
Under the administration of statutory benefits for the retired presidents and deputy presidents, Sh452.6 million was allocated with an expenditure of Sh50.59 million already incurred.
