Nairobi County has been flagged as the county spending the least amount of money on development, as per the Controller of Budget.
In the latest County Governments Budget Implementation Review Report (CGBIRR), COB Margaret Nyakang’o highlighted that Nairobi had spent only Ksh4 billion out of a total Ksh14 billion set aside for development projects.
This was a violation of the Constitution as per Section 107(2)(b) of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act of 2012, which stipulates that at least 30 per cent of County Governments’ budgets should be allocated to development expenditures over the medium term.
Additionally, Regulation 25(1)(g) of the PFM (County Governments) Regulations 2015 specifies that county governments’ actual spending on development should conform to this requirement.
In her report, Nyakang’o noted that Nairobi only spent 12 per cent of its total expenditure towards development, putting it at the bottom of a list that included other counties such as Kajiado, Kiambu and Kisumu.
The low figure also translated to a low absorption rate of 28.7 per cent of its development budget.
This is the second time Nairobi has been highlighted for its low spending on development projects. In a previous report by the COB for the year ending June 2024, Nairobi was flagged for not spending a single cent on development, despite having an annual development budget of over Ksh200 billion.
In the report, Nairobi was placed in the red zone along with the counties of Baringo, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Kajiado, Kisii, Lamu, Nyandarua, Tana River, Uasin Gishu, and West Pokot for failing to spend anything on development.
In the current report, Machakos County was second on the list, which spent only Ksh1.9 billion (16 per cent) for development projects. This was from the Ksh4.9 billion set aside towards development expenditure.
However, according to the COB’s findings, Machakos attributed the decline in development expenditure to a downward revision of its budget due to cash-flow issues.
Following closely after Machakos was Kisumu County, which Nyakang’o noted spent only 17 per cent of its total expenditure on development. This translates to only Ksh1.5 billion out of Ksh5.4 billion allocated for development being utilised.
For Kisumu, they attributed the low numbers to the payment of pending bills, which they reported to be Ksh1.3 billion.
Next in line was Kiambu, which was faulted for only spending 18 per cent of the money set aside for development. COB Nyakang’o disclosed that Kiambu spent Ksh2.9 billion of the allocated Ksh7.8 billion. This was attributed to delays in the disbursement of the equitable share.
Tied with Kiambu was Kajiado, which also spent only 18 per cent of its development monies. The county spent only Ksh1.7 billion of the allocated Ksh3.8 billion, with the report attributing this to delays in the disbursement of additional allocations.
