Workers in more than 21 counties have gone unpaid for up to two months, as delayed approval of the 2026/27 budgets locks devolved units out of the Integrated Financial Management Information System.
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o told the 30th Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council session that of 47 counties, only 32 of 41 submitted budgets have been cleared; seven counties are yet to submit, and five received comment letters they have not answered.
Mombasa, Kisumu, Nyandarua, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Marsabit, Kilifi and Embu have paid June and July salaries, but the rest have not, forcing some employees to borrow.
Several counties had leaned on commercial bank facilities to bridge salaries, arrangements now collapsing as banks pull out over unpaid balances or shift accounts to rival lenders.
Siaya illustrates the political dimension: a standoff between the executive and county assembly over Finance CEC nominee George Nying'iro delayed the July payroll, and Governor James Orengo's administration has attributed the hold-up to unresolved budget disputes.
In Kisii, County Secretary Ernest Osoro cited delays in approving and uploading the budget. The National Treasury, meanwhile, says it has disbursed all equitable share due to counties by financial year-end, including July and August allocations.
Council of Governors chairperson Ahmed Abdullah argued counties facing budget stalemates should still access allocations for essential obligations, including salaries, even before full budget clearance.
The recurring nature of this crisis — nearly identical scenes surface every financial year-end — points to a structural weakness rather than a one-off administrative lapse.
IFMIS access is correctly tied to budget compliance as a public finance safeguard; the law requires Controller of Budget approval before counties draw down funds, precisely to prevent unappropriated spending.
But the current design creates a binary outcome: full compliance unlocks all funds, including salaries, while any unresolved budget dispute — however narrow — freezes workers' pay entirely. That is a disproportionate instrument.
Salary obligations are contractual and largely non-discretionary; they should not be hostage to disputes over development allocations or unresolved vote-heads, which is exactly the distinction KCGWU secretary-general Roba Duda is pressing for.
The Siaya case also reveals a governance risk within devolution's own checks and balances: an assembly can, in effect, weaponise its budget-approval and appointment powers against an executive, with county workers absorbing the cost of the standoff.
That is a separation-of-powers problem the County Governments Act does not clearly resolve.
A workable fix exists in Abdullah's proposal: ring-fence statutory and payroll obligations for partial release even where a county's broader budget remains unresolved, while keeping the full IFMIS freeze as leverage over the discretionary portion of spending.
Absent that reform, this same headline will return in 2027 — and the workers with least control over county-level budget politics will keep bearing its cost.
