Billions in government spending approved by the National Treasury were stopped from being withdrawn after Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o rejected Sh72 billion in requests during the year to June 2026.
The amount is the highest blocked by the budget watchdog under Article 223 of the Constitution in the past five financial years, with the Controller questioning requests that she said included routine government activities that should have been catered for through the regular budget.
Treasury had approved Sh281.5 billion in withdrawals under Article 223 for national government agencies during the 2025/26 financial year. The Controller of Budget authorised Sh209.4 billion, leaving Sh72 billion of the approved requests inaccessible.
Article 223 allows government agencies to obtain funds outside the amounts approved by Parliament when existing allocations are inadequate or when an emergency creates a need for spending that was not included in the budget.
The provision can be used without prior parliamentary approval in situations such as disasters or other urgent needs that could not reasonably have been foreseen when the budget was prepared. However, such expenditure must be reported to Parliament within two months.
Since July 2022, Treasury has approved Sh523 billion in withdrawals under Article 223. Of this amount, Sh158.6 billion has been rejected by the Controller of Budget.
The office is pushing for changes to the laws governing access to funds under Article 223 and stronger controls "to ensure fiscal integrity and safeguard budget credibility."
Dr Nyakang'o has questioned the use of the constitutional provision to meet expenses that are routine or could have been predicted during the budget-making process.
The latest figures show that offices under the Presidency were among those whose requests were cut, with Sh7.8 billion denied despite receiving Treasury approval.
The Presidency includes State House and the offices of President William Ruto, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
Treasury had approved Sh12.9 billion for withdrawals under Article 223 by the three offices during the financial year. The Controller cleared only Sh5.1 billion, meaning Sh7.8 billion could not be accessed.
The Controller of Budget said some of the approvals were for normal day-to-day activities that had not been allocated money during the preparation of the budget.
Her office sought clarification on whether the Treasury approvals complied with Paragraph 40 (3) and (4) of the Public Finance Management (National Government) Regulations, 2015.
The regulations require authorities to establish whether the need for supplementary funding was foreseeable and known when the Budget Estimates were prepared.
The offices under the Presidency made up 10.8 per cent of all requests rejected by the Controller during the year.
State House requests
State House had the largest share of rejected requests among the institutions under the Presidency, with Sh7.3 billion denied from applications that had received Treasury approval.
Between August 9, 2025, and April 6, 2026, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi issued six approvals allowing State House to withdraw Sh11.8 billion under Article 223.
The money was approved to "cater for other operating expenses", according to the Controller of Budget's report on national government budget implementation.
The report did not state what the specific expenses involved.
The Controller eventually cleared Sh4.45 billion from the six approvals and rejected four requests amounting to Sh7.3 billion.
The report also shows that some of the Treasury approvals took as long as four months before the Controller made a decision. Where funds were approved, the amounts cleared were lower than those authorised by Treasury.
One of the applications rejected was for Sh5 billion, which Mr Mbadi approved on December 12, 2025.
Treasury also approved a Sh1 billion request on April 6, 2026, while two other applications, each seeking Sh800 million, were approved by Mr Mbadi in October and December 2025.
All the requests were described as being for other operating expenses.
"The CoB recommends that expenditure under Article 223 of the Constitution should be used strictly in line with the requirements on use of Article 223, which is for expenditure that was unforeseen at the time of budget formulation or of an emergency nature" Dr Nyakang'o said.
DP's office
The office of the Deputy President was also denied a substantial portion of its requests, with Dr Nyakang'o rejecting Sh418.7 million, much of it intended for hospitality and hired transport.
Treasury approved four requests between October 2025 and April 2026, allowing the office to seek Sh1.05 billion under Article 223.
On October 2, 2025, Mr Mbadi approved Sh550 million "to cater for hospitality supplies and services, hire of transport ano other operating expenses."
The Controller later approved Sh245.5 million, with the clearance coming three months after the Treasury authorisation in January 2026.
In another case, Treasury approved Sh200 million for "hospitality supplies and services and for other operating expenses". The Controller authorised only Sh129.3 million nearly two months later in February.
The office of Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi also received Treasury approval to withdraw Sh80 million under Article 223 on December 4, 2025.
The Controller of Budget did not approve the withdrawal.
However, the Executive Office of the President secured approval from both Treasury and the Controller for Sh318.5 million to settle pending bills inherited from the Nairobi Metropolitan Services.
The tighter examination of Article 223 requests comes as separate figures show that offices under the Presidency spent a combined Sh33 billion during the 2025/26 financial year.
The spending covered the office of President William Ruto, State House, the offices of the Deputy President and Prime Cabinet Secretary, and the State departments responsible for Parliamentary Affairs and Cabinet Affairs.
A significant portion of the expenditure was recurrent, covering salaries, events and travel-related costs.
The spending has renewed scrutiny of the use of Article 223, particularly where government offices seek money for activities that could have been identified and included during preparation of the annual budget.
Article 223 therefore remains under scrutiny as the Controller of Budget pushes for tighter controls over expenditure made outside the normal parliamentary appropriation process.