President Ruto caps foreign travel by Executive at 45 days per year, delegations to be a maximum of 4 people

In a memo dated July 29, 2023 and released by Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, Cabinet secretaries, PS, CASs, chairpersons and CEOs of state corporations will only be allowed to travel for events that have a bearing on policy and will not be allowed to travel for more than 15 days per quarter.

The size of the delegation is also limited to four people for CSs, which includes the Cabinet secretary, as the head of delegation and three people for the other categories of state officials.

Personal assistants and security personnel will not be approved for travel, Koskei said in the memo, adding that the delegations should have the most relevant technical staff who will assist the principal in meetings and deliberations.

The move is a continuation of the suspension of non-essential foreign travel that was put in place.

Koskei said that his office, as part of the application review process, will obtain advisory from the Foreign Affairs ministry on the necessity of participation of a delegation from the ministry over and above onsite foreign service staff.

Koskei reiterated that requests for travel will continue to be obtained from President William Ruto through his office.

He said that technical meetings should be attended by technical officers with the requisite expertise and added that calendars should be synchronised so that not both CS and PS are away at the same time.

Officers were also told to submit requests for travel at least seven working days before travel.

A caution was also made on benchmarking visits, which should be associated to a gazetted reform initiative targeting policy that is towards finalisation.

Ministries were also advised to opt for virtual participation in international conferences and workshops with the chief of staff saying that approval will not be granted for foreign travel for internationally hosted trainings, meetings and events organised by local and regional based public/private institutions.