CoB exposes how Sakaja's govt blew Sh138m on foreign trips

The Office of the Controller of Budget has revealed how the Nairobi County Executive blew over Sh130 million on foreign travel during the 2025/26 financial year.

The County government budget implementation review report for Financial Year 2025/26, August 2026, reveals that the higher-cost trips were Sh29. 92 million for 10 officers travelling to Singapore.

This was followed by Sh29.17 million for 135 officers attending the EALASCA Games in Kampala, and Sh16.65 million for seven officers travelling to Dubai for a programme on organisational transformation.

Other trips included programmes in Dubai, Tokyo, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and Switzerland, all totaling Sh138 million, all of which were incurred by the County Executive.

Meanwhile, in the review period, the County reported spending Sh3.82 billion on development programmes.

This, the CoB says, represents a 6.6 per cent decrease compared to FY 2024/25, when the County spent Sh4.09 billion.

“The decline in development expenditure was attributed to  cash flow challenges that included the low revenue collection, which was at 72 per cent of the annual target,” the report says

While the law requires that county bank accounts be opened and maintained at the Central Bank of Kenya, the report says during the period in review Nairobi county operated 174 accounts with Commercial Banks.

“The County treasury did not submit copies of authorisation letters to the Controller of Budget for the opening of all these Commercial Bank Accounts, as required under Regulation 82(5) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments),” the report states

Further, CoB identified some issues affecting budget implementation, among them the underperformance of Own-Source Revenue at Sh15.54 billion against the annual target of Sh21.58.

Absorption was also low, with the county spending Sh3.82 billion on development activities against a budget of Sh13.42 billion, and trade payables were high, amounting to Sh86.90 billion as of 30 June 2026.

The report states that the County Treasury did not adhere to the payment plan for trade payables, while a total of Sh496.03 million was spent on manual payroll which is prone to abuse and may result in the loss of public funds.

“The County reported high levels of stalled projects with an estimated value of Sh2.24 billion. The stalling of the projects is attributed to several factors, including the contractor abandoning the sites due to non-payment of certified completed works,” CoB says

To come out of the woods, the controller of budget in the report states the County should address its Own Source Revenue performance to ensure the approved budget is fully financed.

“Appropriate revenue forecasting tools should be developed and utilised to set realistic revenue targets to avoid hidden budget deficits and ensure expenditure commitments are aligned with available revenue to avoid further escalation of pending bills.,” CoB recommends

Adding, “The County Treasury should prioritise payment of trade payables (pending bills). Pending bills/payables should form the First Charge in the implementation of FY 2026/2027 budget on First -In-First-Out (FIFO) basis.”

The report says in part that the County Public Service Board should regulate staff engagement on contract and casual workers and strict adherence to the approved staff establishment should be maintained.