The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has named Taita Taveta, Homa Bay and Machakos among counties spending the largest share of their revenue on paying civil servants.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

According to the SRC’s Fourth Quarter Wage Bill Bulletin, Taita Taveta, under Governor Andrew Mwadime, spent 63 per cent of its ordinary revenue on personnel emoluments.

Similarly, Homa Bay, led by Governor Gladys Wanga, spent 63 per cent of its revenue on personnel emoluments, while Governor Wavinya Ndeti’s Machakos spent 58 per cent.

The Public Finance Management (PFM) Act sets a ceiling requiring county governments to keep their expenditure on personnel emoluments below 35 per cen t of their ordinary revenue.

📌 What You Need to Know

“In FY 2025/2026, an analysis of the county government expenditure on the wage bill, as a share of ordinary revenue, shows that on average, the county wage-bill-to-revenue ratios remained above the PFM Act, 2012, threshold of 35 per cent,” SRC stated.

This means that the three counties are facing the greatest pressure from the cost of paying civil servants, leaving a smaller proportion of their revenue for development projects.

The SRC further revealed that Tana River, Kwale, Nakuru and Uasin Gishu managed to keep their wage-bill-to-revenue ratios below the 35 per cent threshold during the first nine months of the 2025/2026 financial year.

Overall, counties spent Ksh171.36 billion on salaries, up from Ksh154.94 billion recorded during a similar period in the 2024/2025 financial year, representing an increase of about Ksh16.42 billion.

However, the ratio of personnel expenditure to revenue fell from 46.8 per cent to 44.12 per cent , as revenue growth helped contain higher salary spending.

Nonetheless, SRC noted that the public service wage bill continues to rise, from Ksh1.247 trillion in 2024/2025 to a projected Ksh1.287 trillion in 2025/2026.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke