CoB: Nairobi, Kilifi, and Turkana counties top spending list
By Ascah Mwango, September 20, 2025Kilifi County has topped the list of biggest spenders on development in the 2024/25 financial year, committing Ksh6.71 billion to infrastructure and service delivery projects, a new report by the Controller of Budget (CoB) shows.
The report revealed that Kilifi led the way in actual development spending, ahead of Turkana with Ksh4.29 billion, Nairobi with Ksh4.09 billion, Mandera with Ksh4.07 billion, Narok with Ksh3.96 billion, Nakuru with Ksh3.94 billion, and Kitui with Ksh3.28 billion. Together, these counties accounted for a big share of the Ksh123.7 billion spent on development across the country.
Also watch: Council of Governors threatens to sue the controller of budget Margaret Nyakang’o
In Nairobi, Governor Johnson Sakaja oversaw a major rise in development expenditure, channelling Ksh4.09 billion in 2024/25 compared to Ksh2.72 billion the previous year.
That’s a 50.6 per cent increase, according to the CoB’s budget implementation report. The county’s spending represented 30.3 per cent of its total absorption rate, the highest allocation for infrastructure and service delivery projects in recent years.
The biggest investment went into Ward Development Programmes, where all 85 wards shared Ksh1.95 billion. By June 30, 2025, Ksh834 million had already been put into ward-level projects such as roadworks, water connections, and community amenities.
Urban renewal also stood out, with the Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project (KISIP II) receiving Ksh366 million to improve roads, drainage, and land tenure in informal settlements.
City Hall also bought trucks and equipment worth Ksh263 million, invested more than Ksh500 million in road repairs and street lighting, and allocated Ksh118 million to digitise services at the County Assembly. The Mutuini Market in Dagoretti South got Ksh111 million for its completion, while road maintenance and construction projects worth almost half a billion shillings were fully completed by mid-2025.
Also watch: CoB says Kenya can live within its means if govt cuts back on costly foreign trips
Although Nairobi spends most of its budget on services rather than capital projects, Sakaja stressed that development remains a priority. Much of the county’s equitable share goes to salaries and operations, including school feeding, waste management, bursaries, scholarships, and staff insurance.
Sakaja explained:
“Remember, we are a service-driven county. The entire portion of the equitable share is channelled to personnel, recurrent operations, and essential services such as the school feeding programme, public lighting, solid waste management, personnel-related insurance costs, bursaries, and scholarships. The county relies heavily on own-source revenue to finance both development and operational expenses.”
He noted that while Nairobi’s development spending stood at 12 per cent of the total budget, the figure translates into more than Ksh4 billion the third highest in the country.
Nationally, counties also saw stronger performance in raising their own funds. Collectively, they generated Ksh67.30 billion in own-source revenue, about 77 per cent of their annual target of Ksh87.67 billion. This marked a major jump from Ksh41.40 billion in the previous year.