It has now emerged that Nairobi County spent Sh1.2 billion in domestic and international travels in only nine months.
This is according to a report by the Controller of Budget for the first nine months of the 2023/2024 financial year.
Controller of Budget, Margaret Nyakang’o, noted that during the period, expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh567.60 million.
Out of this, Sh244.76 million was spent by the County Assembly and Sh322.84 million by the County Executive.
The report says the total amount spent on foreign travel amounted to Sh658.83 million and comprised Sh69.48 million spent by the County Assembly and Sh589.35 million by the County Executive members.
Nyakang’o notes that the County failed to provide any information on foreign travel trips despite her office approving only 12 foreign travel requests which were made over the period.
The report reveals that in one of the cases, a team from the office of the governor comprising 19 people travelled to Morocco to attend a proactive management programme where they spent Sh37 million.
At the same time 14 officials from the Executive travelled to Canada to attend seminars on leadership management and conflict resolution spending another Sh10.9 million.
The report says between August 18 and September 2, seven officials from the executive travelled to Dubai to attend a personal branding and people professional summit blowing about Sh9 million.
Another group of eight officials travelled to New York in September to attend a series of summits among the 8th United Nations General Assembly meeting and were paid of Sh8.78 million.
Further, eight officials travelled to Canada in August for a conference, which saw the county spend Sh6 million.
