Budget Transparency: Counties Struggle to Provide Feedback on Public Participation

30 May 2025
4 Mins Read
119
〜 by James Ngunjiri

County governments are still struggling to gather feedback on how the public participates in the decision-making process.

Kenya’s County Budget Transparency Survey (CBTS) 2024 Report, released last week by the public finance watchdog Bajeti Hub, shows that counties provided less information on their priorities and stagnated in terms of public participation.

The Constitution and the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, 2012, require counties to create mechanisms for public participation in the county budget process. Every county must set up a County Budget and Economic Forum (CBEF) to facilitate consultation on county plans and budgets.

Although the report indicates that the devolved units are making progress in how they provide and present budget information to the public, counties still fail to deliver 39 per cent of the information required by law.

Notably, in the financial year 2023/24, the County Fiscal Strategy Paper had the highest number of published documents, with 100% availability; however, it lacked 40% of the information required by law.

Additionally, the report indicates that the score for public participation decreased to 12 out of 100 points, a decline from 13 points in CBTS 2023. Nearly half of all counties (22 counties) lack any details on public participation in their budget documents in CBTS 2024, a 38 per cent decrease compared to CBTS 2023.

Despite the poor performance in this thematic area, some counties have made strides to provide a good level of feedback to the public. Between CBTS 2020 and CBTS 2024, Kwale County provided the most information across all counties, scoring an average of 58 out of 100 points in CBTS 2024. Machakos and Baringo counties are also among the counties that have provided more than a quarter of the required information on public participation in the last three surveys.

On the other hand, nine counties – Busia, Isiolo, Kajiado, Kericho, Kilifi, Kirinyaga, Meru, Nyandarua, and Siaya – have never provided any information on public participation in the five years of the CBTS. Some of these counties also perform poorly in other related thematic areas. For example, Isiolo County had the least non-financial information across all budget documents.

According to Bajeti Hub, the county’s feedback on public participation should contain two components: information on the priorities submitted from the public, who was involved and at what level, and how this input informed the budget decision at hand.

Baringo County provides a good example of how counties can present information on this first component in its Annual Development Plan for the financial year 2023/24. In its annexes, it includes the priority projects submitted by special interest groups through memoranda, along with the ward or organisation from which the input originated.

Bungoma County’s Fiscal Strategy Paper for the financial year 2023/24 provides a good example of how input from public participation was utilised and what decisions it informed. The county used statistical analysis to prioritise issues presented by the public within each sector by sub-county. “This approach allows for the classification and identification of priority public input by region. The county went further to indicate the specific flagship projects that the public input informed,” Bajeti Hub indicated.

On a positive note, Bajeti Hub states that five years into the CBTS, counties continue to make progress by publishing more budget information to the public. The average county budget transparency index rose to 64 out of 100 points in CBTS 2024, marking an 8-point improvement from 56 out of 100 points in CBTS 2023 and nearly doubling the 33 out of 100 points recorded in CBTS 2020.

Other Documents

Other evaluated documents include the County Budget Review and Outlook Paper, the Finance Act, the Quarterly Budget Implementation Report (covering Quarters 1-4), the Approved Programme-Based Budget, the Annual Development Plan, and the Citizens’ Budget.

County Budget Transparency Survey 2024: Comprehensiveness of Key Budget Documents FY2023/24

No	County	Annual Development Plan	County Budget Review and Outlook Paper	County Fiscal Strategy Paper	Approved Programme- Based Budget	Citizens Budget	Finance Act	Quarterly Budget Implementation Report	Average (out of 100 points)
1	West Pokot	83	77	89	76	57	80	69	76
2	Makueni	61	79	72	69	90	60	93	75
3	Busia	56	60	61	84	91	67	89	72
4	Machakos	67	100	75	37	90	60	64	71
5	Wajir	76	100	76	47	57	80	46	69
6	Kisii	61	60	83	46	43	100	80	68
7	Nakuru	67	100	83	75	71	0	78	68
8	Lamu	63	88	64	51	52	80	66	66
9	Kwale	83	73	67	56	40	100	33	65
10	Kajiado	47	65	78	54	55	80	71	64
11	Bungoma	47	92	78	44	55	67	60	63
12	Homa Bay	58	82	79	58	33	60	68	63
13	Turkana	56	90	51	51	48	80	67	63
14	Kakamega	67	94	29	27	60	80	72	61
15	Narok	63	64	57	48	50	80	64	61
16	Nyeri	46	92	81	55	29	60	62	61
17	Kiambu	58	96	85	81	0	100	0	60
18	Kisumu	56	78	40	65	36	80	56	59
19	Nairobi	53	92	78	44	38	60	49	59
20	Baringo	43	73	40	55	36	73	77	57
21	Mandera	57	73	56	46	29	80	59	57
22	Nyamira	11	92	57	84	12	60	80	57
23	Nandi	51	72	47	74	55	40	56	56
24	Kitui	60	88	58	0	0	100	73	54
25	Laikipia	63	86	61	55	40	40	33	54
26	Mombasa	60	92	47	53	45	60	21	54
27	Siaya	42	85	42	55	36	80	40	54
28	Uasin-Gishu	53	69	58	55	33	60	47	54
29	Samburu	58	65	53	59	50	40	42	53
30	Taita Taveta	25	58	61	38	55	73	59	53
31	Tharaka Nithi	64	67	56	38	29	60	56	53
32	Garissa	56	77	60	61	0	60	43	51
33	Meru	58	77	35	67	0	47	64	50
34	Tana River	56	83	72	55	0	0	80	49
35	Kericho	18	56	54	50	36	80	27	46
36	Vihiga	58	54	29	31	33	60	56	46
37	Kilifi	58	88	42	55	0	0	66	44
38	Nyandarua	58	73	69	44	0	60	0	44
39	Elgeyo- Marakwet	44	73	47	48	0	80	9	43
40	Murang’a	54	73	56	43	29	0	47	43
41	Bomet	50	86	38	76	36	0	0	41
42	Kirinyaga	40	73	50	35	0	0	66	38
43	Embu	49	81	53	44	0	0	0	32
44	Trans-Nzoia	58	88	58	0	0	0	18	32
45	Isiolo	60	85	61	0	0	0	0	29
46	Migori	63	65	50	18	0	0	0	28
47	Marsabit	0	0	68	0	0	0	0	10

Source: Bajeti Hub/ CBTS Data Analysis

Budget Transparency: Counties Struggle to Provide Feedback on Public Participation

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