County governments spent more than Sh17 billion on local and foreign travel in the financial year ended June 2026, raising concerns over how devolved units are using public funds amid a growing burden of unpaid bills.
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o flagged the high travel expenditure in her Budget Implementation Review Report, pointing to spending that could have been reduced by holding some activities locally.
The report shows that Kenya’s 47 counties spent a combined Sh17 billion on travel during the period. County governments and county assemblies accounted for the expenditure, with some counties recording significantly higher travel costs than others.
Nairobi County was the biggest spender, using Sh850 million on travel. It was followed by Narok County at Sh758 million, Nakuru at Sh655 million, Samburu at Sh614 million and Tana River at Sh579 million.
The report indicates that county officials travelled to destinations including Dubai, Singapore, New York, Dodoma and London for different activities.Some of the programmes attended by county officials included training on transformative leadership, ethical leadership and emotional intelligence.
Others involved benchmarking on leadership practices.
Nyakang’o questioned some of the travel expenses, noting that certain activities could have been undertaken locally instead of requiring officials to travel outside the country or to other destinations.
The concerns come at a time when counties are also struggling with a large amount of unpaid bills owed to suppliers and other service providers.
According to the report, county governments had outstanding trade payables, commonly referred to as pending bills, amounting to Sh172 billion as of June 30, 2026.
Nairobi City County accounted for the largest share of the pending bills at Sh86.90 billion.
The amount represents more than half of the total reported outstanding trade payables across the 47 counties.
Kilifi followed with pending bills amounting to Sh8.15 billion, while Kiambu reported Sh5.80 billion and Machakos had Sh4.49 billion.
The figures place county spending on travel alongside the wider financial pressures facing devolved governments, particularly their ability to settle bills owed to businesses and suppliers.
During the same financial year, the national government spent Sh25 billion on travel.
The national government controls a budget more than eight times larger than the amount allocated to county governments.
The report also highlighted differences in the ability of counties to raise their own revenue.
Mombasa County led the 47 counties in own-source revenue collections, raising Sh21.1 billion during the period. Nairobi followed with Sh15.5 billion, while Kiambu collected Sh6 billion, Nakuru Sh5.3 billion and Narok Sh4.4 billion.
The figures provide a mixed picture of county finances, with some devolved units raising substantial amounts of their own revenue while also carrying significant pending bills and spending billions on travel.
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