State House spending hit a record KSh18.55 billion in the 2025/2026 financial year, more than double its original allocation and including KSh6.73 billion classified under “other expenses”, despite President William Ruto abolishing the confidential vote two years ago.
A report by the Controller of Budget on budget implementation for the year ended June 2026 shows that State House had initially been allocated KSh8.5 billion in the budget presented to Parliament in June 2025.
However, the institution’s expenditure more than doubled during the financial year, rising to KSh18.55 billion.
Of the total expenditure, KSh6.73 billion was classified under “other expenses”, a category used for expenditure that could not be classified under ordinary votes.
The disclosure has raised questions about the management and classification of public funds at State House, with the Controller of Budget report appearing to have placed undisclosed expenditure under the “other expenses” category.
By December 2025, State House had spent more than 90 per cent of its annual allocation, prompting the National Treasury to authorize additional expenditure under Article 223 of the Constitution.
The additional expenditure was subsequently approved by Parliament.
During the financial year, State House hosted several delegations, including a gathering of about 10,000 teachers who were reportedly each given KSh10,000 as tokens.
The Controller of Budget report also shows that the National Treasury spent more on emergency security operations than the National Police Service during the financial year.
The Treasury spent KSh12.62 billion on emergency security operations, compared with KSh11.39 billion spent by the National Police Service.
The State Department for Internal Security and National Administration recorded the highest expenditure among the entities cited, at KSh21.53 billion.
Because security operations are ordinarily confidential in nature, the additional expenditure has raised questions over how the funds were utilized and who benefited from them.
The Controller of Budget also raised concerns over Kenya’s rising public debt, which increased from KSh11.80 trillion in June 2025 to KSh13.01 trillion in June 2026, representing a 10 per cent increase.
According to the report, public debt now stands at about 74 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), above the statutory threshold of 55 per cent.
The Controller of Budget further warned that domestic borrowing was increasing at an unusual rate, with domestic debt accounting for 56 per cent of the country’s total public debt.
The increase in domestic debt has been attributed to higher borrowing through Treasury bills and bonds, while external debt grew following the issuance of new international sovereign bonds.
The rising debt stock has also increased the cost of servicing Kenya’s public debt.
Kenya spent KSh1.77 trillion on debt servicing during the 2025/2026 financial year, up from KSh1.59 trillion in the previous financial year.
Over the four-year period, the country’s public debt increased from KSh8.59 trillion in June 2022 to KSh13.12 trillion in June 2026, representing a 53 per cent increase.
