County governments recorded Sh172 billion in unpaid bills by the end of June 2026 while spending more than Sh17 billion on local and international travel, a situation that has drawn attention from Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o.
The figures are contained in the Budget Implementation Review Report for the financial year ended June 2026, which highlights spending on travel alongside the growing amount owed by the 47 devolved units to suppliers and other service providers.
According to the report, Nairobi accounted for the largest share of county travel expenditure after using Sh850 million during the period under review.
Narok was second with Sh758 million, followed by Nakuru at Sh655 million. Samburu spent Sh614 million, while Tana River recorded Sh579 million, placing the five counties at the top of the travel expenditure list.
The report shows that county officials travelled to destinations such as Dubai, Singapore, New York, Dodoma and London.
Among the activities that prompted the trips were training sessions on transformative leadership, ethical leadership and emotional intelligence. The officials also took part in benchmarking exercises focused on leadership practices.
Nyakang’o raised questions over some of the expenditure, pointing out that certain activities could have been carried out within Kenya instead of requiring travel abroad.
The national government spent Sh25 billion on travel over the same period. Its travel expenditure was more than eight times that of the counties, in line with the much larger budget it manages.
At the same time, counties continued to carry a heavy financial burden from unpaid obligations.
The 47 devolved units reported total outstanding trade payables of Sh172 billion as of June 30, 2026. The figure represents pending payments owed to suppliers and other providers of goods and services.
Nairobi had by far the largest amount, with pending bills standing at Sh86.90 billion. Its outstanding obligations accounted for more than half of the total amount reported across the counties.
Kilifi followed with Sh8.15 billion, while Kiambu had Sh5.80 billion and Machakos Sh4.49 billion.
The report also gave a breakdown of own-source revenue collected by counties during the same period, with Mombasa recording the highest amount.
Mombasa raised Sh21.1 billion, overtaking Nairobi, which collected Sh15.5 billion. Kiambu came next with Sh6 billion, followed by Nakuru at Sh5.3 billion and Narok with Sh4.4 billion.
The figures place county travel costs, unpaid obligations and revenue collection side by side, offering a picture of how the devolved governments spent and raised money during the 2025/26 financial year.