How City Hall blew Sh630 million on foreign trips

Nairobi County Assembly during a previous session. [File, Standard] Nairobi County blew Sh630 million on foreign travels alone, making it among the top spenders compared to other counties. This is according to the report by the Controller of Budget in the County government budget implementation review for the Financial Year 2024/2025. "The expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh630.35 million and comprised Sh271.28 million spent by the County Assembly and Sh359.07 million by the County Executive," the report reads in part. Adding, "Expenditure on foreign travel amounted to Sh232.95 million and comprised Sh114.52 million by the County Assembly and Sh118.44 million by the County Executive. In the stated financial year, the county executive and Assembly staff travelled to six different countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. Innovation and digital docket under the Executive was listed among the leading in spending with Sh28.4 million between 24-31 May for a trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. According to the report, 13 members of the department were out of the country to attend a certified cyber training in the Arab Countries. Between December 14-22, 2024, 25 members of the Nairobi Revenue Authority travelled to Malaysia for Revenue automation, innovation and tax governance, where the total cost of travel, according to the report, was Sh23.4 million. The CoB report says seven members from the Finance and Planning department travelled to Singapore between 18 and 24 November for a training in Sustainability in the public sector, with a travel cost standing at Sh19.9 million. The Assembly staff, according to the report by Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakango, travelled to five countries with a total travel cost amounting to about Sh22 million. The purpose of travel for the staff member of the County Assembly included training on devolution and governance, training on leadership management and Training on values and principles of leadership in public service. On development expenditure, Nairobi County reported spending Sh4.09 billion on development programmes, representing an increase of 50.6 per cent compared tothe financial year 2023/24, when the County spent Sh2.72 billion "The increase in development expenditure was attributed to the County making more development exchequer requests," Nyakango stated In the Financial year, the CoB observed that Nairobi County was still grappling with the high level of pending bills, which amounted to Sh86.77 billion as of 30 June 2025. The report says, further, there was non-adherence to the payment plan for the pending bills by the County Treasury. "Use of manual payroll. Personnel emoluments amounting to Sh981.08 million for casual staff, LAP-TRUST/LAPFUND pension contributions, gratuity for contract staff and community health workers," the report says This, the CoB stated, was processed through manual payroll, accounting for 5.4 per cent of the total payroll cost. Manual payroll is prone to abuse and may result in the loss of public funds. The Controller of Budget recommended that the County Treasury should ensure the timely preparation and submission of financial reports to the Office of the Controller of Budget per the timelines prescribed in Section 166 of the PFM Act, 2012. At the same time, the county was advised to address its own-source revenue performance to ensure the approved budget is fully financed and to implement appropriate austerity measures to ensure expenditure commitments are aligned with available revenue. "The County Leadership should ensure that genuine pending bills are paid promptly. Further, compliance with the Pending Bills Action Plan should be enforced," the report says.

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