Kenya’s County Budget

Transparency Survey 2022

Transparency for better budget implementation
What is the CBTS?
The Kenya County Budget Transparency Survey (CBTS) is one of the few
consistent transparency initiatives conducted at the sub-national level
worldwide. The survey follows a simple methodology collaboratively done
by CSOs who evaluate the information required by law. The methodology is
open, fair, and verifiable, with the results shared with all counties before the
survey is finalized for their review and raw data made publicly available.

1 www.internationalbudget.org
Why Should Counties
be Transparent?
Making budgets publicly available has
great advantages, including building
public trust by promoting the principles of
credibility and accountability, where the
government is likely to keep its
commitments when budgets are publicly
available and open to public scrutiny.

To this end, IBP Kenya conducts the

CBTS, an annual, objective, comparative
measure done fairly across all the 47 sub-
national units.

www.internationalbudget.org 2
The survey is conducted in two stages:

Stage 1 AVAILABILITY

The availability component checks the availability of 10 Key

Budget Documents on counties' websites. These include:

Annual Development Plan, County Fiscal Strategy Paper, Approved

Programme Based Budget, Citizens Budget, Finance Act, County
Budget Review & Outlook Paper, Quarterly Budget Implementation
Reports for Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4.

Stage 2 COMPREHENSIVENESS

The comprehensiveness component evaluates the key

aspects in the published documents based on 75
indicators under the following thematic areas:

Information on priorities Information on revenue

Information on expenditure Information on capital projects

Non-financial information Personnel details

Feedback on public participation

3 www.internationalbudget.org
 COUNTIES The sustained progress in
budget transparency is a result
CONTINUE TO of improvements in the budget

SUSTAIN transparency index in 33

counties in CBTS 2022 compared
PROGRESS IN to 24 counties in CBTS 2021. This

BUDGET
shows more counties improved
than those that regressed.
TRANSPARENCY.

+2 +6

33 35 41

CBTS 2020 CBTS 2021 CBTS 2022

CBTS index Score (2020 -2022)

www.internationalbudget.org 4
6 OUT OF 8
REGIONAL ECONOMIC BLOCS
IMPROVED THEIR CBTS INDEX IN 2022
Mt. Kenya/Aberdares Region Lake Region
Southeastern Kenya Nairobi
Economic Bloc Economic Bloc(LREB)

+13 +12 +5 +6

-4 -6 +29 +6

North Rift Economic Narok-Kajiado Jumuia ya Frontier Counties

Bloc (NOREB) Kaunti za Pwani Development Council (FCDC)

Jumuia ya Kaunti za Pwani significantly improved from 23 out of 100 points

in CBTS 2021 to 52 out of 100 in CBTS 2022. This notable progress is driven
by improvements in the budget transparency scores across all six counties
in the bloc.

5 www.internationalbudget.org
 MOST COUNTY CBTS 2022
West Pokot 78
TRANSPARENT Makueni 75
Kwale 74
COUNTIES Kitui 69
Nyeri 69

MOST COUNTY CBTS 2022

Kwale +51
IMPROVED Bungoma +47
Taita Taveta +41
COUNTIES Lamu +39
Tharaka Nithi +31

LEAST COUNTY CBTS 2022

Isiolo 0
TRANSPARENT Kajiado 0
COUNTIES Migori
Wajir
0
0

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8/47
COUNTIES
Turkana

Marsabit
Mandera

PUBLISHED THE
Wajir
West
Pokot

FOUR BUDGET
Trans- Elgeyo-
Samburu Isiolo
Nzoia Marakwet

Bungoma Baringo
Uasin

IMPLEMENTATION
Gishu
Busia
Kakamega
Laikipia
Nandi Meru
Siaya
Kisumu
Nyandarua Tharaka Nithi
Kericho Nakuru

REPORTS
Nyeri
Homa Bay Nyamira
Kirinyaga
Embu
Garissa
Kisii Bomet
Murang'a
Migori
Kiambu

REQUIRED IN A
Nairobi
Narok Machakos Kitui
Tana River
Makueni

FINANCIAL YEAR
Kajiado Lamu

Kilifi
Taita Taveta

Budget implementation reports

Kwale Mombasa
remained the least published budget
documents. The findings show their
No. of Implementation Reports Published
publication improved from 23% in CBTS
3 1 0
2021 to 31% in CBTS 2022, which means 4 2

only about a third of expected reports

were published.

7 www.internationalbudget.org
 Only 22 out of the 47 counties INFORMATION
ON THE IMPACT
provided some information in at
least one key budget document
of the three that were evaluated. OF PUBLIC
None of the 33 counties that
published the Approved
PARTICIPATION
Programme Based Budgets ON BUDGET
provided information on public
participation.
DECISIONS
REMAINS LIMITED.

Annual Development Plans 10

County Fiscal Strategy Papers 20

Approved Programme Based Budgets 0

Average Score 10

CBTS 2022 Information on Public Participation Score

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1 COUNTIES SHOULD County legislatures should
approve the budget documents
PUBLISH NON-FINANCIAL
with comprehensive details as the
INFORMATION, law requires. The Controller of
ESPECIALLY IN THEIR Budget and National Treasury's
BUDGET support to counties should further
IMPLEMENTATION strengthen the information level in
REPORTS. the implementation stage.

This includes who was involved, public inputs, 2 COUNTIES SHOULD

and feedback on the decisions informed by PUBLISH PUBLIC
public inputs. Building on opportunities for
PARTICIPATION
engaging the public should be throughout the
decisions making points in the four stages of
REPORTS THAT
the budget cycle, including the budget changes. INDICATE
Counties can borrow practices beyond what DISAGGREGATED
their peers provide on the feedback on public INFORMATION.
participation.

3 COUNTIES SHOULD Counties should set up dedicated access to

information officers in their county responsible
SET UP DEDICATED for providing budget information to all
ACCESS TO stakeholders. This may unclog the bureaucratic
INFORMATION challenges in how the public access the
OFFICERS. information from the counties with unclear
channels.
9 www.internationalbudget.org
 CBTS 2022 Index Map

Turkana Mandera

Marsabit

Wajir
West
Pokot

Trans- Elgeyo-
Samburu Isiolo
Nzoia Marakwet

Bungoma Baringo
Uasin
Gishu
Busia
Kakamega
Laikipia
Nandi Meru
Siaya
Kisumu
Nyandarua Tharaka Nithi
Kericho Nakuru
Nyeri
Homa Bay Nyamira
Kirinyaga
Embu
Garissa
Kisii Bomet
Murang'a
Migori
Kiambu
Nairobi
Narok Machakos Kitui
Tana River
Makueni

Kajiado Lamu

Kilifi
Taita Taveta

Kwale Mombasa

81-100: A 61-80: B 41-60: C 21-40: D 0-20: E

SCAN FOR THE
FULL REPORT

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