NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 29 — County governments control hundreds of billions of shillings every year, funding everything from hospitals and roads to water projects, agricultural extension services and local markets.

📻 Breaking It Down

Yet for many Kenyans, county budgets remain difficult to understand, raising a simple question: where does public money actually go?

For the 2025/26 financial year, the 47 counties were allocated Sh405.1 billion as equitable share from nationally raised revenue. They were also set to receive an additional Sh69.8 billion in conditional and unconditional allocations, including funds from external loans and grants.

The 2026 Economic Survey puts the counties’ projected total revenue for 2025/26 at about Sh543.86 billion, comprising equitable share, own-source revenue and conditional grants.

📌 What You Need to Know

The figures are large, but the real issue for citizens is whether these resources translate into functioning health facilities, clean water, better roads, agricultural support and other services.

The first and largest is the equitable share, a constitutionally guaranteed transfer from nationally collected revenue. For 2025/26, the National Treasury proposed Sh405.1 billion.

The second is conditional and unconditional grants, which can support specific sectors and programmes.

The third is own-source revenue (OSR) generated by counties through property rates, business permits, parking fees, market charges, land rates and other fees.

But counties remain heavily dependent on money transferred from the national government.

A World Bank assessment found that own-source revenue accounted for only about 10 per cent of county expenditure during the period it examined, leaving counties highly dependent on transfers.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya