Kenyan governors are facing fresh scrutiny over how counties spend public money after three devolved units channelled more than half their ordinary revenue into salaries, far above the legal ceiling.
Taita Taveta and Homa Bay each allocated 63 percent of their revenue to personnel costs, while Machakos spent 58 percent. The figures place Governor Andrew Mwadime, Governor Gladys Wanga, and Governor Wavinya Ndeti under renewed pressure to explain why payroll costs are consuming money meant for development.
The numbers also expose a deeper problem threatening devolution: counties are struggling to balance growing public employment with citizens’ demand for services.
Counties Spend Billions on Salaries as Development Money Shrinks ¶
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has placed Taita Taveta and Homa Bay among counties facing the most severe wage bill pressure in the country.
Both counties spent 63 percent of their ordinary revenue on personnel emoluments, according to the Commission’s Fourth Quarter Wage Bill Bulletin.
That means nearly two-thirds of the revenue available to these county governments was absorbed by employee compensation.
The situation raises difficult questions about the amount of money remaining for roads, hospitals, water projects, markets and other development programmes that residents expect from their county administrations.
Machakos was not far behind.
The county, led by Governor Wavinya Ndeti, spent 58 per cent of its ordinary revenue on personnel emoluments, placing it substantially above the statutory threshold.
Governors Face Questions Over Public Spending ¶
The figures are politically significant because county governments have long presented themselves as engines of local development and service delivery.
Yet when salaries consume such a large proportion of available revenue, governors have less fiscal room to finance visible projects or respond to urgent demands from residents.
The Public Finance Management Act requires county governments to keep expenditure on personnel emoluments below 35 percent of ordinary revenue.
The three counties therefore exceeded the legal benchmark by wide margins.
Homa Bay and Taita Taveta were 28 percentage points above the ceiling, while Machakos exceeded it by 23 percentage points.
The gap puts the spotlight on county leadership and raises questions about recruitment, payroll management, staffing structures and the sustainability of county workforces.
County Wage Bill Rises By Ksh16.42 Billion ¶
Across the country, county governments spent Ksh171.36 billion on salaries during the period under review.
That was an increase of Ksh16.42 billion from the Ksh154.94 billion recorded during a similar period in the 2024/2025 financial year.
The increase illustrates the growing cost of maintaining county administrations and service delivery systems.
While employees are essential to running hospitals, schools, public offices and other services, the rapid growth in personnel expenditure creates a difficult political trade-off.
Every additional shilling committed to salaries is money that cannot simultaneously be used for development.
Only Four Counties Stayed Below The Threshold ¶
The SRC report shows that only Tana River, Kwale, Nakuru and Uasin Gishu managed to keep their wage-bill-to-revenue ratios below the 35 percent threshold during the first nine months of the 2025/2026 financial year.
Their performance contrasts sharply with counties where personnel costs have swallowed more than half of ordinary revenue.
The disparity suggests that county governments are operating under very different levels of fiscal discipline and revenue performance.
It also raises the question of whether counties exceeding the threshold are doing enough to contain their payrolls.
Revenue Growth Masks Deeper Spending Problems ¶
There was one positive development in the SRC figures.
The average ratio of personnel expenditure to revenue fell from 46.8 per cent to 44.12 per cent.
However, the improvement was largely supported by revenue growth rather than a dramatic reduction in the wage bill.
That distinction matters.
A county can appear healthier on paper simply because its revenue increases faster than its salary costs. But if payroll continues expanding, the underlying problem remains.
The SRC warned that the public service wage bill continues to rise despite efforts to improve fiscal sustainability.
Public Sector Employment Surges ¶
The broader public service workforce has also expanded significantly. The number of public service workers reached 1.07 million in 2025, up from 884,700 in 2020.
The Teachers Service Commission remains the largest public employer, followed by national government ministries and county governments.
SRC attributed the rising wage bill partly to expansion in the teaching, health, and security sectors, as well as periodic salary adjustments intended to reflect changes in the cost of living.
The national public service wage bill is projected to rise from Ksh1.247 trillion in 2024/2025 to Ksh1.287 trillion in 2025/2026.
Wage Bill Crisis Could Undermine Devolution ¶
The figures expose one of the most persistent challenges facing Kenya’s devolved system: counties must provide more services while operating under tight financial constraints.
The SRC projects the national wage-bill-to-ordinary-revenue ratio to fall from 41.82 per cent in 2024/2025 to 40.68 per cent in 2025/2026.
That projected improvement offers some relief, but it does not erase the problems at the county level.
For residents of Homa Bay, Taita Taveta, and Machakos, the central question is increasingly straightforward: how much of their county revenue is actually reaching development projects after salaries and administrative costs are paid?
As governors defend their spending priorities, the wage bill figures provide ammunition for critics who argue that devolution risks becoming too expensive to deliver the transformation Kenyans were promised.
The political pressure will only intensify if high payroll costs are accompanied by stalled projects, poor services, and growing demands for more county funding.
For county leaders, controlling personnel expenditure is therefore no longer simply an accounting issue. It is becoming a test of political accountability, fiscal discipline and whether devolution can deliver value for taxpayers.
