Kenya had received Sh4.9 billion by March, up from Sh199 million it had received in the six months to December.
The reimbursement is scheduled quarterly and the Treasury had expected to be refunded at least Sh3 billion by December.
The soldiers receive the allowances through the government. The funds are only released to Amisom once accounts from the previous payment are signed off.
The UN has released Sh4.7 billion in delayed refunds for Kenyan troops fighting Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia amid claims of a verification hitch.
The Treasury documents show that Kenya had received Sh4.9 billion by March, up from Sh199 million it had received in the six months to December.
The reimbursement is scheduled quarterly and the Treasury had expected to be refunded at least Sh3 billion by December.
The Treasury did not explain the delay, but earlier reports by the BBC indicated that payments for the 22,000-strong African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) were being withheld over “accounting issues”.
The release of the Sh4.7 billion in the months to March comes after UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, while on an official visit to Kenya, pledged regular funding for troops fighting Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.
Mr Guterres in the March 3 meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta said regular pay would strengthen the troops’ effort to restore security in Somalia. Nearly 4,000 Kenyan soldiers are part of the Amisom.
The international community provides $1,028 (Sh103,828) for each Amisom soldier each month. Their respective governments then deduct about $200 (Sh20,200) for administrative costs, meaning the soldiers take home about $800 (Sh83,628).
The soldiers receive the allowances through the government. The funds are only released to Amisom once accounts from the previous payment are signed off.
Kenya has in the past faced delay in reimbursement of the money, which was linked to the UN’s insistence on verification of the claims.
In October 2011, Kenya formally sent 4,660 soldiers to Somalia after incessant attacks and kidnapping of civilians by Al-Shabaab militants on its territory.
A year later, the UN Security Council gave Kenya the green light to join the Amisom, a decision that meant the Treasury would not bear the full costs of the incursion.
Soldiers serving the eight-year-old Amisom are drawn from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Kenya.
Kenya has in the past used its ambassador to the UN, Mr Macharia Kamau, to demand the reimbursements, saying that failure to refund was “unacceptable”.
The Amisom refunds are provided by the European Union via UN.
In January last year, the EU cut its annual allocation to Amisom by 20 per cent, claiming budgetary constraints and that the emergence of other conflicts in the continent had thinned its Africa Peace Fund.
Those cuts were to take effect from last June.
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