The overhead lights in John Mwangi’s small workshop in Kiambu cast long, stark shadows over idle machinery.

Three years ago, this room buzzed with the sound of welding and the chatter of 20 employees.

Today, it is silent. John sits at his desk, staring at a stack of neatly filed invoices totaling Ksh15million—money owed to him by the county government for a building market stalls project completed in 2021.

For John, and thousands of contractors like him across Kenya, these unpaid invoices are not just bureaucratic figures on a spreadsheet; they are a financial death sentence.

A devastating new report by Controller of Budget (COB) Dr Margaret Nyakang’o exposes the human cost of this crisis, revealing that county governors are increasingly abandoning billions of shillings in pending bills inherited from previous administrations.

County executives

The County Governments Budget Implementation Review report for the last nine months shows that more than half of the debt owed by county executives is now aged three years and above.

This troubling trend highlights a systemic reluctance by successive administrations to settle obligations incurred by their predecessors, trapping local businesses in an endless nightmare.

When a new administration took office after the 2022 elections, John believed the promises of a fresh start. Instead, he found doors shut in his face.

“Every time I visit the county offices, I am told my files are being audited,” John says, his voice tight with suppressed anger. “They tell me it was the previous governor’s project. But I didn’t work for the governor; I worked for the public. The market is being used right now, yet I am facing ruin.”

The crisis is heavily concentrated in counties led by first-term governors who took power in 2022.

According to the report, Mombasa tops the list of shame, with an astonishing 98 per cent of its pending bills aged three years and above, Wajir follows closely at 80 per cent, Kiambu at 76 per cent, Mandera at 75 per cent, and Murang’a at 74 per cent. Embu and Laikipia each hold 65 per cent of their debt in this old category, while Machakos stands at 54 per cent and Garissa at 52 per cent.

Behind these cold statistics are the names of political leaders Abdulswamad Nassir (Mombasa), Irungu Kang’ata (Murang’a), Kimani Wamatangi (Kiambu), Cecily Mbarire (Embu), Wavinya Ndeti (Machakos), and Joshua Irungu (Laikipia) who promised economic transformation.

As these leaders focus on new flagship projects to secure their own legacies, the bills of the past are quietly buried.

Machakos and Mombasa follow closely, drowning in legacy debts that governors seem content to ignore.

For the entrepreneurs who built the roads, supplied the medical equipment, and constructed the offices, the consequences are tragic.

The report warns grimly that this trend poses significant risks for county executives in ever settling their bills as their terms come to an end shortly. “If these bills are not paid now, they may never be.”

Financial collapse

The ripple efect on the local economy is profound. When a county government defaults, a chain reaction of financial collapse triggers across the community.

John had to lay of his entire crew.

Men and women who relied on him to feed their families were plunged into poverty overnight.

Worse still are the banks and auctioneers.

To finance the county projects, most suppliers took out hefty commercial loans, putting up their family homes and pieces of land as collateral. Now, with interest piling up daily, the auctioneers have arrived.

In Mombasa, a female supplier who provided stationery and cleaning supplies to the county executive speaks on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation.

“I lost my family home last month,” she says, tears welling in her eyes. “The auctioneer sold it for half its value to recover a bank loan. I delivered the goods, the county used them, and now my children and I are renting a single room.

The governor drives past me in a convoy while I can barely aford transport.”

Business networks that took decades to build are dismantling in a matter of months.

Trust between local banks and small enterprises has completely eroded, as financial institutions now view any business dealing with county governments as a high-risk gamble.

The COB’s report is a stark reminder that public service must be continuous.

A change in political leadership should not mean an erasure of legal and financial obligations.

While first-term governors argue that they must vet old bills to eliminate fraud, the agonizingly slow pace of these verifications acts as a convenient shield to avoid payment.

For contractors like John, time is running out. “We are patriotic citizens who wanted to build our counties,” he says, locking his workshop door. “But the government we trusted has broken us.”

COUNTIES FINANCIAL STRESS

County Governments Budget Implementation Review report for the last nine months shows that more than half of the debt owed by county executives

Mombasa tops the list of shame, with an astonishing 98 per cent of its pending bills aged three years and above, Wajir follows closely at 80 per cent, Kiambu at 76 per cent, Mandera at 75 per cent, and Murang’a at 74 per cent

First-term governors argue that they must vet old bills to eliminate fraud, the agonizingly slow pace of these verifications acts