President William Ruto. State House and the Executive Office of the President will spend the bulk of Sh2.3 billion allocated in the new budget on rehabilitation and refurbishment works.
Kenyan taxpayers will pay billions of shillings to upgrade President William Ruto’s offices in the new budget whose implementation begins on July 1, 2025, making it one of only few State agencies to enjoy increased cash allocations.
Expenditure estimates released by the Treasury indicate that State House and the Executive Office of the President will spend the bulk of Sh2.3 billion allocated in the new budget on rehabilitation and refurbishment works.
State House Nairobi and State House lodges will spend Sh894.9 million on rehabilitation works and makes for a long-running item in the annual budget.
The development budget for the Office of the President will also increase by nearly 300 times to Sh1.46 billion from Sh50 million in the current financial year, comprising expenditure on maintenance works at Harambee House and the refurbishment of the Government Press, and an additional allocation to the National Fund for the Disabled.
The renovations budget goes against promises made by the Kenya Kwanza administration to cut wasteful and luxurious expenditures amidst a financial crunch caused by underperforming revenues and lower external and donor funding.
While approving this year’s budget estimates on May 2, the Cabinet said the initial budget estimates of Sh4.3 trillion would undergo “substantial revisions” before being tabled in Parliament to reflect reduced revenue expectations.
The Cabinet statement did not provide specifics of how extensive the cut in expenditures will be, but the stated target of reducing the fiscal deficit to 2.7 percent while avoiding tax increases indicates likely deep cuts.
The Sh894.9 million budget for State House renovations comes on the back of the recent makeover of State House Nairobi, including conversion to a flat roof structure.
Funding constraints
Recent expenditure disclosures indicated that funding for State House renovations had been taken over by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Ministry of Defence.
In the second 2024/25 supplementary budget, the National Treasury ended funding for the State House facelift, amid backlash against high spending on upgrades against government funding constraints.
Ongoing renovations at State House, Nairobi, pictured on May 3, 2024.
The exchequer had initially set aside Sh1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of State House Nairobi and other State lodges in the fiscal year running to June 30, 2025, before pulling the plug.
The Ruto administration promised to end extravagant and wasteful expenditure following bloody youth protests that forced shelving of proposed tax increases in the Finance Bill 2024.
The National Treasury has now set aside Sh894.9 million for further facelift of State House including Sh680.7 million for general maintenance works at State House Nairobi.
Recurrent budgets for both the Office of the President and State House have remained relatively unchanged at Sh4.48 billion and Sh7.96 billion respectively from Sh4.49 billion and Sh7.96 billion.
State House budgets largely cover the affairs and running of State House Nairobi and the various State lodges across the country.
The development budget of the Office of the President has other programmes including the Kenya-EU partnership on National Strategy to Counter Terrorism which has been allocated Sh185 million in the next financial year and the Directorate of Resource Survey and Remote Sensing which has Sh69 million in allocated net expenditures.
Recent State House renovations saw an overhaul of the colonial architectural design, drawing a measure of criticism from the public and institutions such as the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK).
Unfit for habitation
The State House facelifts begun in late 2022 after President William Ruto took office following fresh elections and after architects warned that parts of the aged structure had become unfit for habitation and recommended the construction of a new building.
The government deemed that renovations would be more financially feasible than tearing down the entire building.
State lodges set for general maintenance works over the next financial year starting July 1 include the Eldoret State Lodge (Sh60.1 million), State House Sagana (Sh15 million), Mombasa State House (Sh42.5 million) and Nakuru State House (Sh25 million).
President William Ruto chairs a Cabinet meeting at State Lodge, Kisumu on October 9, 2023
Others are the Kisumu State Lodge (Sh24 million), Kakamega State Lodge (Sh25 million), the Mechanical Garage (Sh10 million) and the Kisii State Lodge (Sh12.5 million).
The National Treasury termed the renovations budget as being important in supporting the Presidency.
“In the fiscal year 2025/26 and throughout the medium-term period, the State House will support his excellency in executing the constitutional mandate,” the exchequer said.
President William Ruto during a joint media engagement at Sagana State Lodge, Nyeri County, on March 31, 2025.
“Additionally, it will assist the Office of the Secretary to the Cabinet by providing policy advisory and strategic support for government initiatives. The State House will also facilitate strategic communications and public engagements, ensure the maintenance of infrastructure at State House and Lodges, and administer statutory benefits for the retired President, Vice Presidents and other designated State officers.”
In March, State House Comptroller Katoo Ole Metito told MPs that State House renovations were “serviced through the NIS and the Ministry of Defence.”
The State House plays the role of facilitation to the President in providing leadership, coordination, oversight and promoting good governance, according to the Treasury documents.
The government has had to come out and defend the works at State House, deeming them necessary for an establishment that had not been revamped in the last 117 years.
Too much beautifying
MPs have in the past questioned the timing of the facelift expenditures at a time when the exchequer is under pressure to run a lean budget.
“We are spending too much beautifying the State House. If Kenyans are suffering because of budget cuts, the State House should take the lead in tightening the belt,” Kisumu West MP Rozaah Buyu said.
Nicknamed ‘the house on the hill’, State House first served as the official residence of the Governor of the British East Africa Protectorate when Kenya was a British colony but later became the residence of the founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta at independence.
State lodges have been rarely used by previous presidents- Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta but President Ruto has held meetings in Eldoret, Sagana and Kisumu facilities.
Institutions such as AAK criticised the new look Nairobi State House whose main building now mimics a flat roof, but the government came out to defend the refurbishment.
“People are seeing the renovations from afar. If you go inside the building, we haven’t lost the historical and architectural designs. The roof is not flat. The building is not yet complete,” Ole Metito said.
