Only six counties grade A on development spending; Kwale tops at 1.000
Key points
- Law expects counties to put at least 30% of budgets into development, not only salaries and operations.
- Only six counties earned an A: Kwale, Embu, Kericho, Mandera, Siaya and Uasin Gishu.
- Kwale led with a perfect development expenditure score of 1.000; Embu followed at 0.916.
- Nairobi and Taita Taveta were flagged among the worst performers on the same metric.
Six counties cleared the bar. Under the Public Finance Management framework, counties are expected to channel at least 30% of budgets into development spending; a recent scorecard covered by Capital FM says only Kwale, Embu, Kericho, Mandera, Siaya and Uasin Gishu earned an “A” for beating that statutory threshold with stronger fiscal discipline.
Kwale posted a perfect development expenditure score of 1.000. Embu followed at 0.916, then Kericho 0.849, Mandera 0.815, Siaya 0.814 and Uasin Gishu 0.813. Those decimals are not abstract — they are how parliamentary and Senate oversight ranks whether money left the wage bill and reached projects.
Why Nairobi’s weak showing matters nationally
Coverage places Nairobi and Taita Taveta among the worst performers on the same lens. When the capital under-delivers on development share, national media and creditors notice faster than when a small rural county slips. Residents experience it as stalled roads, clinics and water works while recurrent costs dominate.
An “A” grade is not a certificate of clean procurement. Counties can hit the 30% ratio with poorly designed projects. Pair this scorecard with Auditor-General queries and pending-bill stocks before celebrating any governor’s press release.
How voters should read the next budget day
Ask for the development-to-recurrent split in plain shillings, not only percentages. Demand project geolocation lists for the top 10 development lines. If your county is outside the six, the first question is whether the gap is wage bloat, weak absorption, or creative reclassification of recurrent spend as “development.”
Finance desk: Finance. Verified scoreboard: six A-grade counties, Kwale 1.000, Embu 0.916, and the 30% legal floor. Full annex ranks for all 47 counties live in the source report tables.
Based on Capital FM reporting of the county development-spending scorecard. Official PFM/PBO tables control exact ranks.
