Gov’t Suspends Non-essential Travel To Cut Down on Spending

The government has suspended all non-essential travel for government officials in a bid to cut on public spending.

In a circular issued on Monday by Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, new guidelines were issued for delegations accompanying the President, Deputy President, the First Lady and Prime Cabinet Secretaries for foreign trips.

Koskei who doubles as the State House chief or staff, also suspended non-essential travels include benchmarking, study visits, trainings and related capacity-building initiatives as well as research, academic meetings and symposia.

Also suspended are; conferences and meetings of general participation, side events such as showcase events and exhibitions as well as caucus and association meetings and events.

“In this respect, foreign travel will only be facilitated for engagements in which the Government of Kenya’s participation is; part of fulfilment of state obligations, and pursuant to the conduct of critical state party engagements; and for the purpose of fulfilling a statutory leadership or membership role, in which critical decisions impacting on the country’s position are under consideration,” he said.

The notice indicated that delegations headed by Cabinet Secretaries shall not exceed three persons including the Cabinet Secretary as Head of Delegation while delegations headed by Principal Secretaries, shall not exceed two persons.

“Where the Cabinet Secretary is to be accompanied, at least one (1) of the delegates shall be a technical officer specialised in the subject matter of the foreign engagement, with no security or personal assistants/logistics officers other than as exempted,” he added.

On the other hand, delegations involving both Cabinet and Principal Secretaries shall be restricted to the three persons.

“It is reiterated that Cabinet and Principal Secretaries in the same ministries shall not be away on foreign travel at the same time, unless the foreign engagement expressly demands the same,” he said.

Also, Koskei said, delegations headed by County Governors shall not exceed three persons including the Governor as Head of Delegation.

As for delegations accompanying the President, the First Lady, the Deputy President, and the Prime Cabinet Secretary, they shall be limited to officials playing a direct role in the scheduled activities/programme of the principals.

Koskei instructed Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs to rationalise the number of personnel accompanying each of the principals, and reduce the same by half.

Further, state officials will not be allowed to travel for more than seven days.

The measures, he explained will help “scale down and prioritise spending, focusing on the critical operations and activities that are essential to service delivery to the citizen.”