Nyeri’s wage bill is eating our future

The Mt Kenya Times

County News
13 November 2026

The Mt Kenya Times

Nyeri County spends KSh 52 of every KSh 100 it receives on salaries — 17 percentage points above the legal limit — and the gap is costing residents roads, water, and health services.

By Dr Grace Njine

Nyeri County’s wage bill consumed 52 per cent of its total revenue last financial year — nearly double what the law allows and the highest proportion recorded among all 47 counties in Kenya. That figure is not contested. It comes from the county’s own County Budget Review and Outlook Paper 2026, which shows that by the end of FY 2025/26, Nyeri had spent KSh4.62B on salaries and allowances — 58.63 per cent of everything it actually spent that year. The Public Finance Management Act caps the wage bill at 35 per cent of county revenue. Nyeri is 17 points over that line.

The scale of the problem becomes clearer when set against neighbours. The Controller of Budget’s review of all 47 counties for FY 2024/25 placed Nyeri at the top of the wage bill table at 55 per cent, ahead of Machakos and Baringo. In the same period, Murang’a spent 48 per cent of revenue on salaries, Embu 43 per cent, and Kiambu 42 per cent. Nyandarua held within the legal limit at 33 per cent.

Kirinyaga’s trajectory is the most instructive comparison. In 2017/18, Kirinyaga spent 45 per cent of revenue on wages — worse than Nyeri is today. By FY 2025/26, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission ranked it among only five nationally compliant counties at 32 per cent. It achieved that by freezing recruitment, introducing performance incentives for revenue collectors, and growing its own-source revenue from approximately KSh300 million to KSh700 million. If Kirinyaga, working from a smaller economic base, can get under the line, so can Nyeri.

The human cost of non-compliance is not abstract. Every shilling spent above the legal wage-bill ceiling is a shilling unavailable for roads, water infrastructure, dispensaries, coffee factories, and bursaries. If Nyeri brought its wage bill to 35 per cent, approximately KSh1.5B annually would be freed for development and services. That calculation is straightforward: the numbers are in the county’s own budget papers.

This is not an argument against county workers. Nyeri’s nurses, agricultural extension officers, and ward administrators do essential work, frequently under difficult conditions. The problem lies in the structure of the payroll, not the people on it.

How did Nyeri arrive here? There is no single cause and no single administration to blame. When devolution began in 2013, Nyeri inherited staff from former local authorities and from national government. By 2023, the county acknowledged to the Senate that many of those inherited employees lacked the technical skills required, forcing it to recruit new staff while retaining the old. Collective bargaining agreements and national salary reviews have repeatedly landed additional wage obligations on county budgets without matching transfers from the national government. Health workers alone account for 56 per cent of Nyeri’s wage bill, one of the highest proportions in the country. Payroll controls have also been weak: the Controller of Budget found Nyeri paying KSh109.65M in salaries outside the official payroll system in a single quarter — the kind of shadow payroll where ghost workers and irregular payments are hardest to detect.

The county took a meaningful step in August 2026 by launching a payroll and personnel audit. The question is what follows. Audits matter only when they produce binding action.

Neighbouring counties offer a practical map. Nyandarua conducted repeated physical headcounts and ordered staff found drawing double salaries to refund the money. Uasin Gishu now runs its entire payroll through the official system with no manual payments at all. Makueni links every department’s performance contract to staff appraisal, with both rewards and sanctions attached. These are replicable, proven approaches — not untested theory.

For Nyeri, five steps are achievable within the current political term. First, complete and publish the payroll audit, follow it immediately with a biometric headcount, and set a firm target of zero manual payroll within twelve months. Second, establish an approved staff establishment for every department and freeze all hiring above it, except for critical health and technical positions. Third, reduce numbers humanely through natural attrition and redeployment rather than mass dismissals — Kirinyaga’s abrupt layoff of casual health workers in 2020 threw its hospitals into crisis and stands as a warning. Fourth, grow revenue: Nyeri’s hospitals, public markets, and county assets have unrealised earning potential, and every additional shilling of own-source revenue reduces the wage-bill ratio without cutting a single job. Fifth, extend performance contracts from the executive level down to ward administrators, and tie promotions and training allocations to measurable results.

The law gives counties until June 2028 to reach the 35 per cent threshold. That deadline falls squarely within the term of whoever Nyeri voters elect in August 2027. The wage bill should therefore be a defining question of that election.

When candidates come canvassing for votes, residents have one question that cuts through every promise: what is your specific, costed plan to bring the wage bill within the law? The answer — or the absence of one — will reveal more about an aspirant’s preparedness to govern than any campaign rally. Nyeri’s future is being consumed by its payroll. The county cannot develop what it cannot afford to build.

Dr Grace Njine, CHRP(K), PMP, is a Human Resource Management and Public Service Reform specialist. She holds a PhD in Human Resource Management from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and an MBA from the University of Nairobi. She is an alumna of the Kenya School of Government’s Strategic Leadership Development Programme and writes on county public service reform, wage bill management, and the cooperative sector.