The Government has slammed brakes on unnecessary foreign travel by county government representatives.
In a directive issued by Devolution and Planning Principal Secretary Mwanamaka Mabruki but opposed by chairman of Council of Governors Peter Munya, the Government said it would block the application for visas for foreign trips that are unnecessary.
The letter dated November 1, 2016 was written to Munya for onward communication to his colleagues. The PS said officials of all the 47 county governments were making unnecessary foreign trips for training, conferences and workshops. She said the workshops are organised by local institutions which side-step local venues, including government facilities which are relatively cheaper and better designed. Mabruki said Dubai, West Africa, Germany, Britain and US were the destinations of choice for most organisers and participants who turn out to be Kenyans. “It has emerged the participants in these programmes are Kenyan County Assembly members and executives. Further, almost all the programme curriculum can be offered locally in relatively more established institutions such as the Kenya School of Government,” the letter says.
But in a swift rejoinder, Mr Munya dismissed Mabruki’s letter, and said the ministry was living in the past.
“I haven’t seen the letter myself but the principle of it is totally wrong. County governments are distinct and autonomous. That anachronistic ministry has no mandate to macro-manage counties,” he observed. Munya, who is currently out of the country on official business, added: “We do not support needless travel but it is not for the national government to tell counties what is useful travel and what is not.”
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Mabruki’s letter copied to Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua and Devolution CS Mwangi Kiunjuri further says it is illogical for a Kenyan-based institution to organise a programme tailored exclusively for Kenyans in a foreign land. The PS says the trips were depleting Kenya’s foreign exchange reserves. She said since all payments are in dollars, the programmes are causing “leakage in terms of foreign currency outflows.”
She also said the trips were unnecessarily expensive in terms of cost of air tickets and per diem allowances. Rather than spend such huge sums of monies in foreign lands, the PS wants counties to spend them locally and in effect support local industries.
“It should be incumbent upon both the national and county governments to support our tourism industry by ensuring that such training, conferences and workshops are held in local hotel establishments and institutions,” the letter says.
Mabruki asked Munya to prevail upon county bosses to limit their travel to workshops which are not competently offered by local institutions. She followed the warning with a threat: “Any future requests to participate in external programmes organised by locally-based institutions will not be recommended for issuance of Visa.” Under distribution of functions between the national and county government, the function of foreign travel rests exclusively with national government under Fourth Schedule of the Constitution.
Issuance of visa
Munya, however, disputed this, saying any actions that adversely affect the functioning of county government— including frustrating essential foreign travel— would be unconstitutional. He also said the Ministry of Devolution does not issue visas. “She is obviously overreaching herself. County governments are very busy doing what the national government failed to do in the last 40 years. The least we need is a lecture from the same forces which failed this country and brought us to where we are,” Munya added. A report released by the Controller of Budget reveals that in June this year Nairobi County had the highest expenditure on domestic and foreign travel at Sh286.99 million followed by Nakuru at Sh197.3 million and Bungoma at Sh188.9 million. Other high spenders on foreign and local trips include Kilifi (Sh171m), Kisii (Sh170m), Migori (Sh157m), Wajir (Sh149m), Machakos (Sh148m), Turkana (Sh141m), Kakamega (Sh134m), Kiambu (Sh131m) and Busia (Sh128m).
A classic example of runway foreign travel was highlighted by the Commission of Inquiry on dissolution of Makueni County last year.
The commission, chaired by lawyer Mohamed Nyaoga, found out the appeal for foreign travel by Makueni County MCAs was so real in 2014 that at one point the entire assembly and its leadership was out in three separate destinations. In a single year, the MCAs took 14 back-to-back trips to seven foreign countries which were later found to have been worthless. The year started on a high note with eleven MCAs holed up in Israel between January 9 and 16. Between February and March, one MCA was holed up in Jerusalem. Between March 3 and 9, 13 MCAs and one staffer went to Rwanda for benchmarking. Between April 7 and 11, five MCAs and one staffer were in Dar es Salaam. On April 14, six MCAs left for Dubai on a tour sponsored by MP Patrick Musimba. The tour lasted up to April 19 and although it was sponsored, the MCAs claimed per diem from the assembly.
Between May 17 and 27, 2014, a total of 27 members of the Assembly were holed up in Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia. The Assembly has 30 wards.
A month later on June 28, the Speaker was back in Israel alongside 11 MCAs and two county assembly staff. They stayed until July 8. The next month, five MCAs went to Minnesota, USA. They stayed there until August 22. The following month on September 7, two MCAs and five assembly staff were in Seychelles until September 14.
Two weeks later, the Speaker, 5 MCAs and one county assembly staff left for Texas, US only to come back on October 7. Five days later the Clerk of the Assembly took with him seven MCAs to Louisiana up until October 17. Twelve days later on October 29, five MCAs and one staff member flew to San-Diego and stayed there until November 9. During this period, the Speaker of the Assembly together with six MCAs were in Utah, US.
