Nine Kenyan diplomats serving abroad illegally received nearly Sh1 million in extra allowances in June 2025 despite already drawing their basic salaries and Foreign Service Allowance, a new Auditor General report reveals.
The report for the State Department for Foreign Affairs showed that the nine officers collected a combined Sh987,480 in responsibility, entertainment, non-practicing, domestic, special legal, and salary market adjustment allowances.
Under Section D.1 (1) of the Administrative Rules Governing the Service of Kenya Missions, officers stationed abroad may only receive their basic salary and a designated Foreign Service Allowance. The audit explicitly concluded that management broke the law.
“Review of the Department’s payroll revealed that Officers on posting continued to be paid allowances in addition to their basic salary. In June 2025, nine (9) officers on posting were paid responsibility, entertainment, non-practising domestic allowance, special legal and salary market adjustment allowances totalling Sh987,480. This was contrary to Section D.1 (1) of the administrative rules governing the service of Kenya Missions, which states that an Officer posted to serve at a Mission outside Kenya will be paid a monthly Foreign Service Allowance at prevailing rates as may be reviewed from time to time in addition to their basic salary,” reads the audit.
“In the circumstances, Management was in breach of the law.”
This illegal payout formed part of a broader list of financial and governance lapses Auditor General Nancy Gathungu uncovered at the department.
Gathungu singled out the department’s mounting spending on confidential security operations, warning that existing oversight remains weak. She noted that Public Finance Management regulations fail to define which government agencies qualify for these funds or what actually constitutes a security operation.
Although the accounting officer submitted a standard compliance certificate, Gathungu urged authorities to revise the regulations, demand detailed budget projections, and require post-operation financial summaries to protect public money without threatening national security.
The audit also revealed that by November 2025, management had taken zero action to fix issues raised in previous audit reports, making it impossible to confirm if the department had improved its internal financial controls.
Additionally, the report cited the department for breaching Section 19(3) of the Employment Act, 2007. Investigators found 106 employees taking home net salaries below the mandatory one-third threshold after payroll deductions pushed their total pay cuts beyond the legal two-thirds limit.
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