The question of how to manage the costs of government is a hot topic in Kenya, and there have been numerous debates on the affordability of the state structure created by the 2010 constitution. However, it is not entirely clear what the basic costs of running the government are. Among the many new offices and new costs, perhaps none is more important to understand than the costs of running a county government.
This brief estimates the total cost of running Kenyan counties in FY 2015/16. It details how we estimate the costs for core personnel and administration/operations, points out areas where we lack complete or reliable data, and discusses the implications of these findings for calculating the “basic equal share” of the budget given to each county in Kenya.
