Ruto government spends Ksh.25B in a year on travel alone
Ruto government spends Ksh.25B in a year on travel alone
The controller of budget Margaret Nyakang’o has raised a red flag over excessive executive travel, with the national government blowing away Ksh.25 billion in local and foreign travel in the last financial year.
The expenses now come barely a year after the president promised to reduce the budget by 50 per cent in an effort to reduce wastage.
It has been two years since President William Ruto first pledged to cut government travel spending by Ksh.11 billion, to allow for more money for development.
“Tunapunguza pesa ya travel ya all government agencies by 50 per cent,” he said.
The president would, a year later, announce further stringent measures to curb unnecessary travel, to allow more funds to flow into the budgetary deficit after the Finance Bill 2024 was shot down.
However, the report by the auditor general on the expenditure by the national government has shown little to no reduction in the expenditure.
The controller of budget revealed that the national government spent Ksh.25.46 billion on travel alone between the 1st of July 2024 to 30th June 2025. The amount is a meagre drop of Ksh.1.7 billion from the target of 11 billion.
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“I still see elements of too much foreign travel in a sense that we are now encroaching on resources for development,” said Margaret Nyakang’o, controller of budget.
Nyakang’o said the excessive travel was derailing development.
“Our development budget reduced significantly,” she added.
State House, which made an extra requisition of Ksh.5 billion under Article 223, which allows for additional funding in extraordinary circumstances, splashed the millions on domestic travel, hospitality supplies and services, fuel expenses and maintenance of motor vehicles.
“These funds have to come from somewhere. So, either another vote is reduced or we must borrow, therefore by extension our indebtedness in terms of local or foreign borrowing is impacted,” said Nyakang’o.
Most of the preferred travel destinations for top government officials include Dubai, UAE, London, UK, South Africa and the US.
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