NAIROBI, Kenya– Kenya is set to record a rare decline in its public wage bill, with fresh data showing government spending on salaries and benefits could ease to Sh185.5 billion in the third quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.
Figures released by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) indicate that both national and county governments are tightening payroll expenditure, lowering the wage-bill-to-revenue ratio compared to the previous quarter.
County outlays are projected to fall sharply, from Sh63.63 billion in Q2 to Sh54.66 billion in Q3, dragging their wage-bill-to-revenue ratio down from 43.34 percent to 35.38 percent.
National government expenditure is also expected to dip to Sh130.79 billion, from Sh153.71 billion in Q2, with the ratio easing to 26.46 percent.
“The wage bill to nominal GDP ratio was estimated at 7.58 percent in FY 2022/2023, and then to 7.19 percent in FY 2023/2024,” the Commission stated in its quarterly bulletin.
“The wage bill to ordinary revenue ratio is estimated to have dropped from 43.54 percent in FY 2022/2023 to 40.45 percent in FY 2023/2024.”
The Commission disclosed that between January and March 2025, it processed 30 requests from state institutions seeking a combined Sh411.7 million in salary-related adjustments.
Approvals were granted for Sh281.4 million, which is approximately 68.4 percent of the applications.
Most of the requests, at 76 percent, were linked to allowances and benefits, with performance and productivity demands accounting for 10 percent, while collective bargaining and job evaluations each represented 7 percent.
Employment data shows the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) remains the country’s dominant employer.
Its workforce grew 5.2 percent to 410,700 in 2024, up from 390,400 in 2023. Ministries and other government arms employed 236,700, while counties had 226,500 on their payrolls.
Kenya’s total public workforce crossed the million-mark last year, reaching 1.023 million employees, a historic high even as spending pressure begins to ease.
