County governments spent more than Ksh.17 billion on domestic and international travel in the year to June 2026, even as suppliers remained owed Ksh.172 billion in pending bills.
The expenditure has drawn scrutiny from Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o, who questioned the need for some of the trips and activities undertaken outside the country.
The latest Budget Implementation Review Report shows that Nairobi led the 47 counties in travel expenditure, spending Ksh.850 million.
Narok followed with Ksh.758 million, while Nakuru spent Ksh.655 million, Samburu Ksh.614 million and Tana River Ksh.579 million.
County officials travelled to destinations such as Dubai, Singapore, New York, Dodoma and London, with the trips linked to leadership training, benchmarking and other capacity-building activities.
Nyakang’o flagged some of the spending as unnecessary, noting that certain programmes could have been conducted within Kenya.
The figures come as counties continue to grapple with a substantial backlog of unpaid bills. By June 30, 2026, outstanding trade payables stood at Ksh.172 billion.
Nairobi accounted for more than half of the total, with pending bills amounting to Ksh.86.90 billion. Kilifi followed at Ksh.8.15 billion, Kiambu at Ksh.5.80 billion and Machakos at Ksh.4.49 billion.
Meanwhile, Mombasa led counties in own-source revenue collection, raising Ksh.21.1 billion during the financial year.
Nairobi collected Ksh.15.5 billion, followed by Kiambu at Ksh.6 billion, Nakuru at Ksh.5.3 billion and Narok at Ksh.4.4 billion.
The report also indicates that the national government spent Ksh.25 billion on travel during the same period.
