NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 27 \u2013 Kenya\u2019s governance system is on the spot after new findings from the Office of the Controller of Budget and the Office of the Auditor-General revealed widespread inefficiencies, weak spending priorities, and growing gaps between public funds and service delivery.<\/p>\n
The latest updates presented before Parliament in March 2026 paint a troubling picture.<\/p>\n
Billions of shillings are being spent, but many Kenyans are still not seeing real improvements in healthcare, infrastructure, and basic services.<\/p>\n
According to the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang\u2019o, counties continue to spend heavily on salaries and operations, leaving little for development.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing a worrying trend where a large portion of county budgets is going to recurrent expenditure instead of development projects that directly benefit citizens,\u201d Nyakang\u2019o told lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Her office flagged low absorption of development funds, even as counties struggle with incomplete projects and stalled services.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu raised repeated concerns over how public money is being used.<\/p>\n
\u201cYear after year, we continue to flag the same issues\u2014weak procurement systems, unsupported expenditures, and lack of accountability,\u201d Gathungu noted in her latest audit briefing.<\/p>\n
The audit reports show that counties are also struggling to raise their own revenue, hitting only about 72 percent of their targets. <\/p>\n
This has left many devolved units heavily dependent on national government transfers.<\/p>\n
In the 2023\/2024 financial year, counties budgeted over Sh571 billion, but only received about Sh462 billion, creating major funding gaps.<\/p>\n
This has had a direct impact on service delivery, with some counties delaying projects or failing to complete them altogether.<\/p>\n
The reports also expose overspending in county assemblies, which exceeded legal limits by billions of shillings.<\/p>\n
Ironically, these assemblies are meant to act as watchdogs over county governments.<\/p>\n
The situation has been made worse by recent controversies, including audit queries around the Social Health Authority (SHA), President William Ruto\u2019s flagship healthcare reform program.<\/p>\n
Auditors flagged irregular procurement, unclear contracts and spending outside approved budgets.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 27 \u2013 Kenya\u2019s governance system is on the spot after new findings from the Office of the Controller of Budget and the Office of the Auditor-General revealed widespread inefficiencies, weak spending priorities, and growing gaps between public funds and service delivery. The latest updates presented before Parliament in March 2026 paint a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}