SAM’S SENSE: State House happy hour...

This week, the Office of the Controller of Budget released a report on budget implementation by the national government. It is a regular accountability document published at the end of every quarter, meaning every three months.

And just as is often the case, the majority of state departments and entities had under-implemented their budgets. On average, departments absorbed 47 per cent of the Ksh.4.69 trillion expenditure plan.

But there were exceptions. Political offices had much better absorption capacity, posting upwards of 80 per cent.

State House Kenya, for instance, spent 93 per cent of its recurrent expenditure in the first six months. What does that mean, you may ask? As per the budget passed by the Parliament of Kenya in June 2025, the State House was allocated Ksh.8.4 billion to finance its programmes for the year. Of this, Ksh.7.6 billion was meant for recurrent expenditure such as salaries, operational costs and other expenses.

But State House spent 93 per cent—amounting to Ksh.7.1 billion—in just six months, leaving about Ksh.400 million to last the remainder of the year.

But now we are already in March, the ninth month of the financial year. And the State House has been spending using a famous article in the constitution—Article 223—which allows the government to spend more money on things it had not foreseen at the time of writing the budget.

But wait. In the financial year 2024/25, State House spent upwards of Ksh.12 billion to finance its programmes, despite having cut the allocation to just over Ksh.4 billion following the Gen Z demonstrations in June 2024.

And so, if State House had spent Ksh.12 billion in a year of cost-cutting, how did the same institution plan to spend just over Ksh.8 billion in the year that followed? We were told that zero-based budgeting was being applied across government. Was this it?

The Ksh.8 billion is already depleted. And to correct this, a supplementary budget is now under consideration by Parliament to grant State House an additional Ksh.8 billion to run it until June 2026, the end of the financial year.

While at it, the second-highest office in the land has also been spending. The Office of the Deputy President of Kenya has shot past its budget limits, including finding some idle Ksh.44 million for the office of the spouse of the deputy president—an office that, in the first place, had no budget.

Remember the famous promise of June 2024, when the offices of spouses of senior state officers had their budgets scrapped? Well, that was then.

How is it convenient for offices like State House, the Office of the Deputy President, the National Treasury of Kenya and the Ministry of Interior and National Administration to draw resources under Article 223, extend their budgets under the banner of “other expenses,” and just spend, while other crucial sectors struggle to run?

At a time when quality assurance offices in the education sector are struggling with underfunding as low as 25 per cent by mid-year, what explanation can justify some high offices spending double their original allocations? What if every other office demanded double its allocation?

Secondly, when the government and the country at large spend nearly nine months in the budget-making process only to realise “unforeseen circumstances” in the first three months of the financial year, who is fooling whom?

When the government overuses Article 223 to meet the political intentions of senior office holders—denying crucial sectors and the most needy persons in Kenya what could easily be life-saving support—where is the value of fiscal planning?

And finally, when the government continuously asks Kenyans to tighten their belts, asks public officers to exercise fiscal discipline, and urges officials to hold meetings virtually instead of unnecessary travel, the same senior government officials crisscross the country with a battalion of public servants to dance at podiums and spread political messages and tokens—effectively expanding their allowed expenditure limits.

"Where’s the sense?"