DP Gachagua on the spot after his foreign travel costs increase by 438%

The Officer of the Controller of Budget (CoB) has shed light on the rise of travel expenditure by the national government in the financial year 2023/24, despite constant calls by President William Ruto's administration to implement austerity measures.

According to the annual Budget Implementation Report, CoB Margaret Nyakang'o's office highlighted the Deputy President's office as the biggest spender, rising from Ksh.103.4 million by the end of June 2023 to Ksh.556.7 million by the end of June 2024. 

This represented a 438 per cent increase, a sharp contrast from the Kenya Kwanza government's promise to cut cost at a time when many Kenyans are burdened by the high cost of living.

The spending has cut across the government, with the Office of the President and State House increasing foreign travel by 28 per cent, while that of the Prime Cabinet Secretary's office rose by 64 per cent.

In total, travel expenditure for the three top offices in the country amassed Ksh2.45 billion, translating to a 57 per cent increase from Ksh.1.56 billion during the financial year 2022/23.

The spending has raised questions on whether or not the government actually heeds to its own austerity calls.

In 2023, the National Treasury released a circular chopping allowances for official travel by half and limiting the category of officers allowed to use planes on domestic routes.

This was reiterated by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in August 2023, when he read the riot act to the Cabinet for their excess traveling, making it hard for the President to hold meetings.

"Why do you have to honour every invitation that you have been given to every country? Your Excellency, at times we have tried to hold Cabinet meetings but we can't because five or six CSs are out of the country. Some change clothes at the airport from one country to another, that is the truth. Why can't you regulate yourself?" Gachagua posed to the ministers then. 

"If the President was to travel and honour every invite, he would be out of this country the whole year. You just have to decide what is useful and other things we leave to the ambassadors."