Several counties have been unable to pay salaries for up to two months due to delays in accessing funds, with Migori Governor Ochilo Ayacko blaming administrative hurdles at the Office of the Controller of Budget.
In an interview on August 25, Ayacko said Migori County, for instance, had passed its budget by the last week of June and completed the required processes, but delayed approval to upload the budget into the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) prevented the county from accessing funds.
He said Migori had received its allocations for July and August, but the money remained idle in the county’s central bank account because the county could not access it.
“We haven’t paid our salaries for two months for reasons that are not ours. We have received monies for July and August, and these monies lie idle in our Central Bank account, but we are unable to access them, not because we have failed to do anything, but because of administrative bureaucracy in the Controller of Budget’s office,” he said.
Counties that have publicly declared salary delays include Migori, Turkana, Taita Taveta, Nairobi and Siaya.
Ochilo Ayacko Explains Why Migori and Other Counties Are Struggling to Pay Salaries
According to the governor, the county assembly passed the budget unanimously in the last week of June, after which he signed the Appropriations Act in the first week of July.
The governor said the delay left the county unable to access money already released.
He also criticized the absence of a specific timeline requiring the Controller of Budget’s office to clear county budgets, saying prolonged administrative processes can interfere with the implementation of county programmes.
Ayacko called for legislation to require the office to discharge its functions within strict timelines to prevent delays from affecting county operations.
However, the governor said budget-related salary delays vary from one county to another.
He said some counties failed to pay salaries because their county assemblies had not passed their budgets, and disagreements between county executives and assemblies also contributed to delays.
Ochilo Ayacko said county executives have a responsibility to engage county assemblies and build consensus to ensure budgets are passed on time.
He said Migori did not experience disagreements over the passage of its budget, which the assembly approved within the required period.
The Migori Governor further explained that the Controller of Budget has a legal responsibility to establish whether county budgets comply with the law before clearing them for implementation.
He said some budgets had been returned to counties for clarification on issues raised during the review process.
Ochilo Ayacko urged county leaders to prioritize dialogue and consensus to ensure political or administrative disputes do not disrupt government services.
What Controller of Budget Said
The salary delays have been linked to the late clearance of county budgets, which must be approved before counties can fully operationalize their financial systems and access funds for expenditure.
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o said on August 10 that Turkana was among four counties whose 2026/27 budgets had not been cleared, alongside Nyamira, Isiolo and Tharaka Nithi.
She noted that counties were required to submit their budgets by June 30, but some submitted them after the deadline, with others doing so in August.
Nyakang’o also pointed to gaps in some of the submissions, including missing plans for settling pending bills, the Fiscal Strategy Paper, and evidence of public participation.
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