Nairobi tops counties spending least funds on development
The Sakaja-led administration was among the thirty-eight counties that flawed Section 102 (2)(b) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 which requires devolved units to allocate at least 30% of their budgets to development.
Nairobi City County government spent only 10.3 per cent of its budget on development in the 2023/24 financial year.
This is according to a recent report by the National Treasury which revealed that 80 per cent of the 47 counties spent less than 30 per cent of their budgets on development.
In Nairobi, the Johnson Sakaja-led administration was among the thirty-eight counties that flawed Section 102 (2)(b) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 which requires devolved units to allocate at least 30% of their budgets to development.
Only nine of the 47 devolved units led by Marsabit County abided by the requirement in the 2012 Public Finance Management (PFM) Act.
“The total actual development expenditure for the FY 2021/22, FY 2022/23, and FY 2023/24 accounted for 25%, 23%, and 24% of the total actual expenditure for the same period respectively. This translates to an average development expenditure of 24% of actual total expenditures,” the National Treasury stated in the Budget Police statement for 2025/26.
“Most counties allocate expenditures just for approval by the respective county assemblies in line with the legal requirement but they do not adhere to this provision during budget execution. There are notable fluctuations in consistently meeting the 30% minimum expenditures on development implying that county development and service delivery may be negatively hampered as counties spend more on recurrent expenditures as opposed to development expenditures,” it added.
In the period under review, the Nairobi City County Assembly passed an Sh38.3 billion budget to gear the administration to deliver projects to the city residents.
The school feeding program, which was among Sakaja’s top priorities, received a boost after members allowed the Finance Committee to slash Sh400 million from the insurance kitty and inject it into the school kitty.
Last month, the High Court directed National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi and twenty governors to allocate 30 per cent towards development as per the Constitution.
While delivering their ruling, Judges Teresia Matheka, Rayola Olei, and Robert Limo declared that the ongoing failure by the national and county governments to allocate 30 per cent of their budgets for development is unlawful.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) in 2024 where they sued the two levels of government over spending less than ten per cent of their budgets on development.
KHRC told the court that failing to allocate the required 30 per cent undermined development, violating Kenyans’ social, economic, and cultural rights.
Other counties that spent below 30 per sent include; Kisii spent 13.7 per cent, Mombasa 16.2 per cent, Kisumu 17.5 per cent, Taita-Taveta at 18.6 per cent, and Kiambu at 19.4 per cent among others.
This comes as recent research by Infotrak Research and Consulting firm ranked Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja among the lower-performing county leaders.
The Countrytrak Performance Index 2024 report released last week assessed Governors’ performance across Kenya, and placed Sakaja in the bottom ten, coming at 37 out of 47.
The Infotrak ranking comes as the latest in a series of reports that have dented Governor Sakaja’s public image in recent times.
