Nairobi County Assembly suspends all travel as cash crunch bites

Members of the Nairobi County Assembly will temporarily be unable to undertake both domestic and foreign trips for their usual travel and workshops.

This follows the Speaker's travel suspension due to a cash crunch at the assembly, which has led air-ticketing service providers to halt their services.

In a communication to the assembly on Thursday, Deputy Speaker Paul Kados said the assembly had not yet received funds to facilitate its activities, resulting in the suspension of all travel plans.

"In light of the ongoing challenges with air ticketing, I am unable to approve any further processing of said travel arrangements. Therefore, all scheduled foreign travels are hereby suspended until the assembly can settle payments with the service providers, particularly those handling air ticketing," he announced.

Kados, who is also the Mihang'o Ward representative, said the assembly's activities have been disrupted as funds have not been disbursed by the Exchequer.

"The assembly has recently faced cash flow challenges, meaning we are unable to pay for services and suppliers on time as required. As a result, the air-ticketing service providers have halted their services, which has severely impacted the assembly’s programmes and activities, as we have not received funds from the Exchequer," he explained.

The Deputy Speaker also noted that committee schedules and meetings planned for the coming weeks would be postponed until the national government releases the funds.

"I am aware that several committee workshops are scheduled for the coming weeks. Similarly, I know that several delegations were due to attend official activities abroad, but all these have now been halted," Kados added.

The suspension of travel and assembly activities due to the cash crunch at City Hall comes just days after the assembly purchased a Sh33 million mace.

Nairobi County has been under scrutiny for its travel expenses.

As revealed by the Controller of Budget, the county assembly spent Sh314.24 million on travel in the first nine months of the 2023-2024 financial year.

During this period, expenditure on domestic travel, which refers to trips within Kenya, amounted to Sh244.76 million, while foreign travel costs were Sh69.48 million.

In the report, Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o revealed that the County Assembly failed to provide documentation and details for foreign travel.

"The County Assembly did not provide information on foreign travel, despite the Controller of Budget approving 12 foreign travel requests over the nine months of the financial year," the report stated.