Nairobi, Machakos among top counties flagged for blowing billions in travel expenditure

The Controller of Budget, Margaret Nyakang’o, has yet again raised a red flag over expensive, wasteful, and unnecessary foreign and domestic travel by governors and members of county assemblies.

The latest report by the CoB shows that counties blew away billions of shillings on globe-trotting for training sessions, conferences, study tours, and benchmarking.

Nairobi County spent the highest on travel expenditure, spending over Ksh.800 million on travel alone in the financial year 2024–2025.

An analysis of the expenditures by counties in the latest Controller of Budget report shows that 23 out of 47 county governments did not meet the 30 per cent development threshold in their budgets, instead spending billions on foreign and domestic travel.

The report shows that Nairobi County was leading among the worst spenders of their development budgets, spending only 12 per cent of the budget on development, followed by Machakos County at 16 per cent, Kisumu at 17 per cent, Kiambu and Kajiado at 18 per cent, and Nyamira at 19 per cent.

Ironically, the bottom spenders on development were the top spenders on travel.

Nairobi County spent a whopping Ksh.863 million on travel alone. Expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Ksh.630 million, comprising Ksh.271.28 million spent by the county assembly and Ksh.359 million by the county executive. Expenditure on foreign travel amounted to Ksh.232 million.

Some of the events attended by the Nairobi County executive included the Fashion Access 2025 in Dubai, UAE, with one official blowing away Ksh.17 million on the event alone.

The county, however, has the largest number of MCAs and county staff in the country, with officials attributing the huge bill to the numbers.

Machakos County Governor Wavinya Ndeti also led her MCAs in topping the list of big spenders on travel, with the county cumulatively spending Ksh.631 million. That included expenditure on domestic travel amounting to Ksh.532 million and Ksh.99 million on foreign travel. The county went on a record 47 foreign trips in a year.

Kisumu County, on the other hand, spent a total of Ksh.491 million on travel, with its favourite destinations being London, UK, and Washington, DC. A county executive spent Ksh.2.7 million to attend “various meetings” in the USA.

The top destinations by the leadership of the devolved units include Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, the USA, and Tanzania in East Africa.

The report also shows massive irregularities in pending bills and HR records in counties, used to siphon public funds.