By Kepher Otieno - Reporter
Kenya, 16 May 2026 - The Office of the Auditor General has issued a stark appeal for increased government funding, warning that chronic understaffing and resource constraints are undermining its constitutional mandate to safeguard public finances across Kenya’s devolved system.
Speaking in Mombasa, Auditor General CPA Nancy Gathungu said her office is struggling to keep pace with the sheer scale of audit responsibilities, particularly at the county level where thousands of public entities require scrutiny.
Her message was measured but firm. The numbers, she suggested, are becoming untenable.
The Office of the Auditor General is currently required to audit more than 11,300 county entities. These include hospitals, schools, water utilities, and other devolved agencies that collectively form the backbone of county service delivery. Yet the institutional capacity, she indicated, has not grown in tandem with the expansion of devolution.
“Proper funding will ensure accessibility of audit services in a more efficient way, despite the bulk work that awaits us,” she said, underscoring the widening gap between mandate and means.
At the heart of the concern is manpower. In the Coast region alone, only 84 audit staff are currently deployed. It is a figure that, in practical terms, places immense strain on field operations, delays reporting cycles, and risks limiting the depth of financial scrutiny.
The implication is clear. Kenya’s accountability architecture is expanding faster than the institutions designed to police it.
CPA Gathungu’s remarks reflect a broader structural tension within public finance oversight. Devolution has multiplied the number of audited entities. But fiscal oversight capacity has not kept pace. The result is an audit backlog that continues to grow in both scale and complexity.
In the background, the Auditor General’s office is expected not only to verify compliance but also to detect inefficiencies, flag misuse of funds, and reinforce public trust in devolved governance. That expectation, however, is increasingly difficult to meet under constrained resources.
The appeal for additional funding therefore lands at a sensitive intersection of governance and budgeting. It is both administrative and political. It raises questions about national priorities in financing accountability institutions versus service delivery agencies.
In a parallel assurance, Defence Principal Secretary Dr Patrick Mariru addressed ongoing infrastructure developments linked to the Auditor General’s presence in Mombasa.
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He confirmed that construction of a new Auditor General’s office—previously taken over by the Kenya Defence Forces—will be completed within schedule.
“I want to promise that the project will be delivered on time, on standard, within cost. After 12 months, the ultramodern facility will be completed,” he said, offering a timeline that signals government intent to strengthen institutional infrastructure even as operational funding concerns persist.
The Defence Ministry also indicated plans to expand sports infrastructure in the Coast region, including projects in Kilifi and the Mombasa Stadium. While not directly tied to audit functions, the announcement reflects a broader government development footprint in the region.
Meanwhile, Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Sheriff Nassir reinforced the importance of the Auditor General’s role, describing the office as central to promoting transparency and accountability in public resource management.
Yet he also raised a familiar concern in Kenya’s governance discourse—the politicisation of audit outcomes. He warned that audit reports, which are intended as technical instruments of accountability, are increasingly drawn into political contestation.
Such politicisation, he implied, risks diluting their purpose. Audit findings, he argued, should serve as a factual reference point for public finance management, not as tools for political interpretation or selective criticism.
The convergence of these remarks paints a layered picture. On one hand, an Auditor General seeking capacity to fulfil a widening mandate. On the other, a state apparatus signalling infrastructural investment but still grappling with operational gaps. And beneath it all, a persistent debate over how audit findings are received, interpreted, and politicised.
At its core, the issue is not just funding. It is institutional sustainability. As devolution matures, the demand for oversight grows sharper, more technical, and more urgent. The question now confronting the system is whether accountability institutions are being equipped to match the scale of the system they are meant to scrutinise.
For CPA Gathungu, the message from Mombasa is unambiguous. The mandate is expanding. The workload is escalating. And without commensurate investment, the gap between oversight expectation and operational reality will only widen further.