In her exit speech, Waiguru said: “The total projected revenue for budget implementation in the financial year 2023/24 amounted to KSh564.5-billion.” (Note: This is about US$4.34-billion at current exchange rates.) 

Africa Check asked the council for the source of Waiguru’s data and will update this report once we receive a response. 

In the meantime, we checked the figure against reports from the controller of budget – the independent body that oversees the implementation of national and county government budgets in Kenya. 

The controller publishes quarterly and annual reports on county budgets. Here are the reports for the first, second, third and fourth quarters of the financial year in question.

Waiguru refers to the budget estimates for the third quarter. This is what the 47 counties planned to spend. For the full year, their total budget was KSh562.75-billion ($4.32-billion).  

The counties are expected to finance the budget with funds from the national government, grants and levies and taxes.

By 30 June 2024, the end of the financial year, the counties had raised KSh492.47-billion ($3.78-billion). 

Waiguru used older data, from April, when more recent data, published in August, was available. 

Furthermore, she referred to the overall county budgets as “revenue projections” when they weren’t. Budgets are about estimated expenditure and costs, while revenue is about the income or money available to fund the budget. When revenues fall short, budgets are said to be in deficit. 

We therefore rate her claim as incorrect. – Makinia Juma

Government budgets are usually divided into: 

• Recurrent expenses – for salaries, supplies, and operations.
• Development expenses – for capital projects, such as roads, schools and hospitals.  

Waiguru’s figure, again, is from the third quarter report, published in April, but in the final report for the year, published in August, and therefore available to her, the figure allocated for development expenditure is KSh189.93-billion ($1.46-billion). 

The difference between the two figures is KSh13.55-billion ($104.06-million). 

Is the correct figure 36% of the total budget? With a total budget of KSh562.75-billion ($4.322-billion), the development portion comes to 33.75%.

The claim is incorrect. – Makinia Juma

The most recent official data shows that KSh372.82-billion ($2.86-billion) was allocated to recurrent expenditure, making up 66.2%.

Waiguru cited old figures (KSh361.05-billion or$2.77-billion) and got the numbers wrong by at least KSh11.8-billion ($91-million). – Makinia Juma

Discussing the budget, Waiguru noted that Kenya counties met the “fiscal responsibility principle that requires at least 30% of the budget to be allocated to development expenditure”.

Kenya’s public finance law stipulates that “a minimum of 30% of the national and county governments budget shall be allocated to the development expenditure”. 

The most recent data from the controller of budget shows that 33.8% or KSh189.9-billion ($1.46-billion) of the 2023/24 financial year budget (KSh562.75-billion) was earmarked for development expenditure.

The claim checks out. – Makinia Juma

County revenues are made up of money paid out from the national treasury and what counties collect locally, known as own-source revenues. This includes levies, fees and licences. 

Waiguru said counties had collected KSh58.95-billion ($452.7-million) or 72.8% of their annual target of KSh80.94-billion ($621.6-million). 

The county's financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June of the following year.

For data on this claim we again consulted data from the office of the controller of budget. The latest is its August 2024 report, which shows that the 47 counties had a revenue target of KSh80-billion ($614.4-million) for the 2023/24 financial year.

As of 30 June, the counties had collected KSh58.95-billion (US$452.7-million). This also worked out to 72.8% as Waiguru said. – Makinia Juma

Education

The United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation, Unesco, defines the pupil-to-teacher ratio as the “average number of pupils per qualified teacher at each level of education in a given academic year”.  These levels are pre-primary, primary, lower and upper secondary.

The pupil-teacher ratio is calculated by dividing the number of pupils by the number of teachers in the country. 

The ministry of education’s statistical booklet 2020 is the most recent data on this. It put the ratio at both public and private schools at 43:1 in pre-primary, 37:1 in primary and 28:1 in secondary levels. 

Waiguru spoke about the ratio in the context of pre-primary education, one of the devolved functions to counties. 

For the most recent estimates of the number of teachers and pupils, we checked with the national statistics bureau, which publishes enrolment and teacher data in its annual economic survey.

In 2023, according to the most recent estimate, the ratio of pupils to teachers was 38:1. – Grace Gichuhi

Waiguru said a pupil–teacher ratio of 38:1 for pre-primary level education “meets acceptable standards”.

In Kenya, the law gives the education minister the power to set the teacher-pupil ratio in consultation with the teachers’ employer and the county education boards. 

In 2018, the education ministry published the national guidelines for pre-primary education, which set the standard at 1:25 in a regular pre-primary class. 

The statistical booklet 2020 also cited that statistic: “At the pre-primary education level, the standard pupil-to-teacher ratio is one teacher and an assistant teacher for every 25 learners.” 

The claim that a 38:1 ratio “meets acceptable standards” is inaccurate. – Grace Gichuhi

“To maintain education quality, 74 557 teachers were employed in pre-primary centres,” the governor said. 

In June 2023, a presidential task force on education reforms published data on the staffing of pre-primary school teachers. This showed that in 2022, there were 42 522 teachers employed in public pre-primary schools, and 23 565 in private pre-primary schools.

Kenya’s statistics bureau also publishes the number of teachers in its annual economic survey. The 2024 data, with provisional figures for 2023, showed 75 383 pre-primary school teachers. This was a decrease from 78 333 in 2022.

The bureau obtained its figures from the council of governors. Waiguru's count is off by 826, but there's a difference in the reporting dates, so it's in the ballpark. – Grace Gichuhi

In March 2022, the Kenyan senate’s committee on education investigated the conditions of service of pre-primary school teachers. In its final report, the committee found that 42 457 pre-primary teachers were employed by county governments. 

The official statistics agency's annual economic survey showed there were 32 461 public pre-primary schools and 15 205 private pre-schools in 2023. 

We have not yet seen recent data with details on the number of pre-school teachers in public and private schools. Until then, we will rate the claim as unproven. – Grace Gichuhi

Waiguru said enrolment had risen, showing progress and the counties’ “commitment to equitable education access for all children”.  

Kenya’s statistics bureau also reports yearly pre-primary pupil enrolment.

The governor’s numbers are lower than those in the bureau’s annual economic survey. Using the survey data, the increase between 2022 and 2023 is 55 664, or 1.97%. 

Waiguru also claimed the counties had achieved gender parity in enrolment. In other words, there were equal numbers of boys and girls. 

The data showed that 19,636 more girls than boys were enrolled in pre-primary schools. 

However, calculating gender parity by dividing the number of girls by the number of boys gives a value of 1.01, which indicates almost equal representation.

We therefore rate the claim as mostly correct. – Tess Wandia

Health

Kenya's health workforce consists of doctors, clinical officers, nurses, pharmacists, medical laboratory technologists and technicians, public health officers, physiotherapists, nutritionists and dieticians. 

In September 2023, the country’s health ministry published a health labour market analysis, which put the total number of health workers in the country at 189 932. 

Of these, 94 744 or almost half (49.9%) were employed in the public sector, 48 483 (25%) in the private sector, and 27 243 or 15% were classified as unemployed. 

Only 90% of the health professionals were active in the labour market. 

The statistics bureau’s 2024 economic survey, which obtains its data from  health professional associations, put the total figure of health workers in Kenya at 140 851 in 2023. The data only referred to the “licensed personnel”. 

Waiguru’s stats add up to 100 559. We have written to the council of governors for her data and will update this report with the response. Until then, we rate the claim incorrect. – Tess Wandia

Waiguru's speech included a line about the number of hospital beds increasing “by 4%, rising from 39 220 to 40 814 beds”. 

Kenya’s national data agency receives data on hospital beds from the health ministry and publishes it in its annual economic survey. 

The 2024 survey shows that the number of beds in public health facilities had increased from 39 210 in 2022 to 40 814 in 2023, an increase of 4%. – Tess Wandia