The latest figures from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) should raise serious questions in Homa Bay and Machakos, particularly for governors Gladys Wanga and Wavinya Ndeti.
The SRC has placed Homa Bay among the counties spending the largest share of their ordinary revenue on paying civil servants.
Under Governor Gladys Wanga, Homa Bay spent 63 per cent of its ordinary revenue on personnel emoluments.
Machakos, led by Governor Wavinya Ndeti, spent 58 per cent.
These figures are difficult to ignore because the law sets a much lower limit.
The Public Finance Management Act requires counties to keep personnel expenditure below 35 per cent of their ordinary revenue.
“ In FY 2025/2026, an analysis of the county government expenditure on the wage bill, as a share of ordinary revenue, shows that on average, the county wage-bill-to-revenue ratios remained above the PFM Act, 2012, threshold of 35 per cent,” SRC stated.
For Homa Bay, the 63 per cent figure means that nearly two-thirds of ordinary revenue went into salaries and related personnel costs.
Machakos was not far behind. At 58 per cent, more than half of its ordinary revenue was consumed by the wage bill.
The issue is not about whether public servants deserve to be paid. They do.
The bigger question is whether county governments are maintaining a reasonable balance between salaries and the services and development projects residents expect.
Every shilling committed to wages is a shilling that cannot be used elsewhere.
Counties need money for roads, health facilities, water, markets and other basic services.
When personnel costs take up such a large share of revenue, the space for development becomes smaller.
The situation becomes more striking when compared with counties that managed to stay below the legal threshold.
Tana River, Kwale, Nakuru and Uasin Gishu kept their wage-bill-to-revenue ratios below 35 per cent during the first nine months of the 2025/2026 financial year.
Across the country, county governments spent Ksh171.36 billion on salaries, up from Ksh154.94 billion during the same period the previous financial year.
The SRC says the wider public service wage bill is also rising, from Ksh1.247 trillion in 2024/2025 to a projected Ksh1.287 trillion in 2025/2026.
The numbers therefore leave Wanga and Ndeti with a clear responsibility: explain why their counties are spending so much of their ordinary revenue on personnel, and what they are doing to bring the figures back within a sustainable range. Residents deserve more than explanations.
They deserve evidence that their money is being used responsibly.
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