Dismal local revenue collections and reckless spending have plunged counties into Sh108 billion debt.
This worrying trend is captured by the Controller of Budget in the county governments budget implementation review for 2017-18.
It shows that the devolved units are sinking deeper in debts.
The devolved units continue to miss their revenue targets and are unable to finance their budgets.
The report shows that Governor Mike Sonko’s Nairobi owes suppliers and contractors Sh64.8 billion.
Others in the top league are Migori (Sh3.7 billion), Mombasa (Sh3.7 billion), Wajir (Sh2.6 billion), Kisumu (Sh2.04 billion), Nakuru (Sh2.3 billion), Meru (Sh2 billion), Marsabit (Sh2 billion), Kwale (Sh1.8 billion) and Narok (Sh1.7 billion).
They are closely followed by Nyeri (Sh1.4 billion), Nyamira (Sh1.3 billion), Nandi (Sh1.3 billion), Kilifi (Sh1.2 billion), Kericho (Sh1.2 billion), Embu (Sh1.2 billion), Kitui (Sh1.1 billion), Busia (Sh1.1 billion) and Bomet (Sh993 million).
Garissa has a debt of Sh980 million, Machakos Sh975 billion, Laikipia Sh760 million, and Mandera Sh107 million.
“A further review of the COB report reflected that some counties did not submit the status of their pending bills in the previous years unlike in the 2017-18 when the disclosure was done by respective county treasuries,” reads the report tabled by Mandera Senator Mohamed Muhamud.
Comparatively, the cumulative debts translate into an average of 36 per cent of the equitable share that was disbursed to the counties that year.
“The total pending bill for 2017-18 is composed of 74 per cent of recurrent component and 26 per cent of development component, being the respective values of invoices and commitments whose services are deemed to have been rendered but not honoured as at the end of June 2018,” the report says.
The counties' own source revenue was Sh32.49 billion against Sh49.2 billion target.
"The slight decline in actual revenue collection may be attributed to removal or reduced rates of some revenue-raising measures such as cess tax by some counties after 2017 elections,” the report states.
The counties with the lowest performance in local revenue are Kisii (27%), Mandera (26.8%), Garissa (34.7%), Nyamira (38.2%), Busia (42.8%), Wajir (45.1%) and Taita-Taveta (48.6%).
Those that hit their targets are Tana River (188.8%), Migori (11.1%), Kwale (100.5%), Uasin Gishu (96.4%), Nakuru (91.1 per cent) and Bomet (90.6%).
