When the current fiscal year ends, the cost of presidency under President William Ruto will hit Sh100 billion in under four years. This means that currently, President Ruto is running the most expensive presidency in Kenya’s history.
A contrast with the previous administration of former president Uhuru Kenyatta under which president Ruto served as deputy president shows that in under four years, the current presidency has spent more than what Uhuru’s presidency spent in ten years.
The previous administration’s cost of presidency was Sh89.9 billion in ten years starting from 2013 to 2022, while the current presidency has already gobbled up more than Sh89 billion.
Currently, the presidency is made up of the State House, Office of the President, Office of the Deputy President, Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary, and State Department for Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs.
State House alone has led the pack in ballooning the cost of presidency with huge expenses. In the current fiscal year, President Ruto’s State House blew an astonishing Sh10.4 billion in the first seven months. The whole State House budget for the current year has now been ballooned to a staggering Sh17 billion. This allocation is more than what is allocated by developed countries such as the United States and Germany for equivalent offices.
According to the disclosures by the National Treasury, the house on the hill had initially received a full year allocation of Sh7.7 billion. This allocation was meant to cover the period that will end in June 2026.
However, by the end of January 2026, Sh10.4 billion had been blown away. Shockingly, it has been revealed that in the month of January, Ruto’s residence had spent Sh1.3 billion. This amounted to spending Sh42.6 million every day for the 31 days of January. This reckless spending of public resources was the continuation of a trend that was seen in the first three months of the current fiscal year.
During that period, State House blew Sh4.32 billion against the target allocation of Sh1.92 billion that State House had been given to spend in the first quarter of the current 2025/26 financial year. This meant that the budget had been overshot by 125 percent in three months. If State House goes on to blow the full amount of Sh17 billion, it will have spent approximately Sh1.4 billion per month or Sh47 million per day for 365 days.
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Between the fiscal years 2022/23 and 2025/26 of spending under the presidency, Sh88.8 billion has been exhausted, with the largest share being consumed by State House, and the offices of the President and Deputy President.
State House has taken Sh36.4 billion, Office of the President Sh35.1 billion, Office of the Deputy President Sh12.5 billion, and the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary Sh3.3 billion. The State Department for Parliamentary Affairs has taken Sh900 million while the State Department for cabinet Affairs has taken Sh700 billion.
As at the end of March 2026, the largest share of the total amount amounting to Sh83 billion was allocated to recurrent expenses. This was equivalent to 93.7 percent. These expenses included paying salaries, hosting delegations, fuel, and per diems for travels.
