Government Suspends Sate Officials Travel

President William Ruto has taken a significant step today by implementing a suspension on non-essential travel for 13 categories of State Officers.

This action, as outlined in a notice signed by Chief of Staff Felix Koskei, is aimed at promoting the wise and responsible utilization of public funds.

The suspension on international travel applies to both National and County Government members, with the notable exceptions of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who will not be impacted by this new directive.

Affected officials include the Attorney General, Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and County Officers as well as the Controller of the Budget. 

Others include; the Auditor General, Chief Registrar of the Judiciary, Director of Public Prosecutions, Clerk of the Senate and his counterpart in the National Assembly. 

All County Governors, County Secretaries and County Assembly Clerks will also be affected by the new directive.

Koskei further announced Chairpersons and CEOs of State Corporations, Statutory Offices and Commissions as well as Independent Offices would also be suspended from non-essential travel.

This has been necessitated by the need to scale down and prioritise spending, focusing on critical operations and activities that are essential to service delivery to the citizen,” the notice read in part.

Going forward, the government announced that foreign travel would be limited to engagements where Kenya’s participation is part of the fulfilment of state obligations or for the purpose of fulfilling statutory leadership.

With immediate effect, the government suspended benchmarking and study visits as well as training and related capacity-building initiatives. 

Additionally, the aforementioned state officers and commissioners will not be able to travel outside the country for research, academic meetings, conferences and meetings of general participation.