Nairobi City County has published a Ksh46.98 billion budget for the 2026/2027 financial year — a spending plan that lays out ambitious development goals for Africa’s fourth-largest city, but one that reserves the overwhelming majority of its resources simply to keep the lights on.
According to the County’s Citizen Budget Estimates released on May 11, Ksh32.89 billion — roughly 70 percent of the total budget — has been set aside for recurrent expenditure, covering staff salaries, administrative operations, maintenance of public facilities, and the continuous delivery of essential services including health, waste management, and urban services. Only the remaining Ksh14.09 billion, about 30 percent, is set for development projects.
The lopsided split is not unique to Nairobi — it reflects a pattern common across Kenya’s county governments — but it carries particular weight in a city grappling with crumbling infrastructure, an overstretched public health system, and a population demanding more from its government every year.
Health receives the single largest departmental allocation: Ksh13.7 billion directed toward healthcare services, medicine supply, emergency and referral systems, hospital infrastructure, nutrition programmes, and digitisation. It is a signal that the county views healthcare as its most urgent obligation to residents.
Boroughs and Public Administration come next at Ksh5.46 billion, covering disaster management, emergency response, and service delivery at sub-county and ward levels. Environment, Water, Energy and Natural Resources receives Ksh5.04 billion, with the county outlining plans to drill 10 boreholes annually, install 285 water storage tanks, expand sewer coverage from 52 to 65 percent, and increase daily water supply to approximately 665,000 cubic metres.
Mobility and Works — the department responsible for the potholed roads and flooded streets that frustrate millions of Nairobi residents daily — receives Ksh4.03 billion for road construction and rehabilitation, storm water drainage, traffic management, and street lighting. Ward Development Programmes are allocated Ksh2.15 billion for community-level infrastructure.
To fund all of this, the county is targeting Ksh24.12 billion in own-source revenue from business permits, parking fees, land rates, market fees, and building approvals. The balance of Ksh22.86 billion is expected from the national government’s equitable share and grants from development partners.
Yet the budget lands against a troubling financial backdrop. Nairobi has been flagged as carrying the highest amount of pending bills among all county governments — a staggering Ksh86.8 billion in unpaid obligations, more than double its entire annual budget for the coming year.
For Nairobi residents, the question the budget raises is straightforward: with most of the money going to operations and a mountain of old debt still unresolved, how much of this Ksh46.98 billion will they actually feel?
