Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga has approved the first Supplementary Appropriation Bill for the 2025/2026 fiscal year, amounting to Sh9.44 billion.
While assenting to the Bill in his office on Tuesday, Kahiga assured the public of prudent use of the monies, especially funding critical sectors such as health, education, and roads.
Out of the budget, Sh6.32 billion will go to recurrent expenditure, while Sh3.12 billion has been set aside for development.
Nyeri County Assembly will also receive Sh.793,941,493 to run its affairs.
“The Nyeri County Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2025, is an act of the County Assembly of Nyeri to authorize the issue of a sum of money out of the Nyeri County Revenue Fund and its application towards the service of the year ending on the 30th of June, 2026, and to appropriate that sum and a sum voted on account by the County Assembly of Nyeri for certain public services and purposes,” he said.
“After this, Nyeri County Treasury may issue out of its County Revenue Fund Account and apply towards the supply granted for the service of the year ending on June 30, 2026, the sum of Sh9.44 billion,” he said.
Departments that will receive a lion’s share of the money include Roads, Transport, Public Works, Infrastructure, and Energy (Sh 626 million); Education, Training, and Devolution (Sh 547.5 million); Agriculture, Livestock, and Aquaculture Development (Sh 364.1 million); and Medical Services and Public Health (Sh 343.1 million.)
While commending the two arms of government for having worked together harmoniously to make the realization of the budget a success, Kahiga said every effort will be taken to ensure the public benefits to the fullest from the funds.
He also said the bill also underwent all the necessary legal requirements, including being subjected to public participation across all 40 wards.
“These figures indicate where our priorities are. Public participation also took place. We are going to operationalize this as soon as it is uploaded on the Integrated Financial Management Financial Information System platform. So this is a journey to be implemented in the next two or three days. We will continue to ensure this budget is implemented to the last cent, and therefore, all pending bills will be done with efficiency and timelines as required,” assured the governor.
At the start of the current financial year, the county government had blamed delays in paying off pending bills on the late disbursement of money to counties by the exchequer.
Finance and Economic Planning County Executive Committee member Mr. Robert Thuo had intimated the county was planning to carry forward pending bills amounting to Sh128.8 million, which were not cleared at the close of the 2024/2025 financial year.
The amount included Sh 58.5 million owed to contractors and suppliers under recurrent expenditure and some Sh 70.3 million under the development vote.
“I know Nyeri is not isolated, and this is going to be a challenge because we will carry the debt forward. Contractors who supplied services to the county between the months of May and June and those who are working now will have to wait until we roll over the new budget. Ideally, we were supposed to pay them using the 2024/2025 budget, but due to delays by the National Treasury to disburse equitable share in good time, we will have to pay them under this new budget,” said Thuo during the unveiling of the 2025/2026 budget.
“However, I wish to reiterate our commitment to guarantee payment to all our contractors and all our service providers, as long as there are no cash flow disruptions occasioned by delays by the exchequer,” added Kahiga.
by Samuel Maina & Wangari Mwangi
