Foreign Trips For Nairobi MCAs To Be Cut Off

By Clinton Ochieng

Nairobi MCAs will no longer go on foreign trips if the Assembly passes its supplementary budget without amendments.

The 2.2 billion Shillings budget that is currently before a committee has proposed a full removal of foreign travel allocation in the Assembly’s bid to cut cost and the funding moved to expendable budget votes line.

MCAs and assembly staff who have been traveling out of the country on missions such as benchmarking will miss allowances totaling more than 25 million Shillings in the current budget estimates, with the financial year remaining with only four months to a conclusion.

Committees had been allocated 8.6 million Shillings for foreign travel, clerk’s office 5.9 million Shillings, MCAs 5.4 million Shillings, the Nairobi County Assembly Service Board 2.6 million shillings, and the office of the Speaker 1.7 million Shillings.

The funding was to cater for air tickets, subsistence allowances, and other transportation costs that were to be experienced by the MCAs and the officers while on foreign missions. The document that is currently before the Finance, Budget and Appropriations Committee is to be debated by the MCAs once the report is tabled on the floor of the House.

The Auditor General’s office and that of the Controller of Budget have in the past raised questions on how MCAs’ foreign trips, which are mainly on benchmarking, benefit the electorate.

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