Nairobi City sinks Sh103 million on trips

Nairobi City County executive and assembly blew Sh103.3 million on local and foreign trips between the months of July and September, according to the first quarter of the 2014/15 expenditure report.

This was 30.9 percent of the Sh333.6 million set aside for operating expenses for the three months.

The assembly spent Sh13.89 million in domestic travels and Sh33.9 million in foreign trips, whereas the county executive spent Sh49.6 million in domestic tours and Sh5.8 million on foreign travel.

It is however the finance and economic planning office that took the big chunk of the domestic travels, quaffing Sh20.64 million in foreign tours, while the governor’s office spent Sh5.8 million.

Earlier this year, county assembly Speaker Alex ole Magelo defended the travel expenses by Nairobi MCAs, claiming they were not astronomical as compared to other counties.

In the last budget, Migori topped in travel expenses with Sh369.4 million, while Elgeyo Marakwet spent the least on travel (Sh53.4 million).

In the concluded 2013/14 budget, Nairobi spent Sh134 million for local and foreign travel. However, in the report released by the Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo’s office in August 2014, Nairobi did not rank among the counties with high travel expenses.

The review report stated, “Counties were allocated Sh9.8 billion for domestic and foreign travel. Actual expenditure was Sh7.7 billion, which is 76 per cent of the budgetary allocation.”

In January this year, Odhiambo urged county governments to cut down on travel expenses, especially foreign trips because tours were not adding value to the counties. Magelo however objected to her argument, saying the Nairobi assembly travels were beneficial to the city in terms of learning and building links with other nations.

Not many reports or recommendations have been tabled in the House after such trips. Even though the assembly has spent Sh33.9 million since July 2014, not a single report from the trips has been tabled.

In August 20, the Committee on Water and Sanitation chaired by MCA Alex Otieno tabled a report after touring a water and sanitation company, ecopPlastic factory and others in Rwanda. The April 20 trip was however factored in year’s budget.

“This is the first committee to go out of the country and bring a report to the House,” stated nominated member Petronila Achieng on August 20.

MCAs, while supporting the report, argued they should be allowed to travel to countries in Europe on similar benchmarking missions . They argued the report was a pointer they were not misusing public funds.

Woodley rep, Njoroge Kairu opined, “The water committee should go to Britain. That is where we can learn. They should go to big countries for benchmarking.”

However in September, the MCAs faulted Magelo and the majority and minority leaders for abdicating their responsibilities and instead spending time on trips abroad.

“We heard that they travelled to Dubai, but we don’t know what they went to do there. Their absence has affected the leadership of the House,” a member told The Nairobian in September.

A few days later, Magelo besought MCAs to allow him to travel when free, saying he was not using public funds in his foreign trips.