Purchase, renovation and refurbishment of offices and residences of select Kenyan missions abroad will set back taxpayers nearly Sh2.35 billion in additional expenditure in the year starting July, draft budget document shows.
The proposed expenditure includes costs for upgrade of facilitative infrastructure such as ICT and security, according to budget proposals prepared by the State Department for Foreign Affairs for approval by the National Treasury.
The budget, if approved by the Treasury and lawmakers, will bring the cumulative expenditure to Sh8.12 billion since Kenya started improving office and residences of the Kenyan missions nearly a decade ago following years of neglect.
The projects, which involve renovation, refurbishment, construction and purchase of buildings for foreign missions, started during the reign of former president Uhuru Kenyatta, and are at different stages of implementation.
The projects will cost an estimated Sh34.92 billion on completion by June 2028, underlining the burden of keeping Kenya’s foreign missions in good shape.
The allocations are backed by reports from Office of the Auditor-General, which revealed the poor conditions of some of the buildings that house Kenya’s foreign missions have become “inhabitable”.
Kenya has more than 60 diplomatic missions abroad largely serving its trade and security interests.
The makeover budget for the offices and homes of high commissioners, ambassadors and consuls was shelved in the current financial year ending June on the back of depleted revenues following the collapse of new taxation measures in the wake of deep shortfalls in tax collections for the previous year.
The budget proposals show allocations towards the protracted purchase of a new office block in London and renovation of ambassador’s residence in New York will be the biggest at Sh550 million each.
Kenya has long been looking to buy a new office block for its mission in the UK, with plans being accelerated following the expiry of lease for the Chancery for High Commissioner and staff in London on October 10, 2021.
The Foreign Affairs Department had received Sh2.12 billion by June 2024 for the purchase of the chancery building in London, with the proposed Sh550 million set to be the final installment payment for the project’s estimated cost of Sh2.67 billion.
The Kenya’s High Commission in London had early in 2024 invited property owners to express interest in selling a suitable building for use by the mission.
The targeted building should measure 9,000 square feet of office space, be in a secure neighbourhood, closer to other diplomatic missions and be served by trunk water, electricity and sewer and fiber-optic internet, according to tender documents.
“[During FY 2023/2024, a property [was] identified for purchase as a Chancery in London,” the Foreign Affairs department wrote in the budget proposal report.
Besides the Chancery, Kenya’s mission in London has been allocated additional Sh18 million for upgrade and renovation of the High Commissioner’s residence, bringing the cumulative costs to Sh200 million. The High Commissioner and his deputy have been renting houses for accommodation since October 2022 at an estimated rate of 13,250 pounds (about Sh2.1 million) a month.
Past audits have found Kenya’s missions in key stations to be old and in deplorable conditions, with some in state of disrepair.
Missions in Washington has been added Sh35 million for renovations, bringing cumulative costs for the project to Sh1 billion, Islamabad will also get Sh35 million more, Rome (Sh25.5 million), Dar es Salaam (Sh50 million), Pretoria (Sh25 million), Addis Ababa (Sh150 million), Hague (Sh40 million) and Paris (Sh35 million).
The embassy in Lusaka which will be handed Sh120 million for renovations, Kinshasa (Sh120 million), Tokyo (Sh40 million), Berlin (Sh30 million), Stockholm (Sh15 million) and Beijing (Sh5 million), among others.
The Parliament Budget Office (PBO) —a professional unit which advises lawmakers on fiscal and budgetary affairs— has in the past urged the government to consider hiring consulates and liaison officers in countries where it does not have an embassy to cut associated with running missions abroad.
“Honorary Consuls offer an efficient diplomatic channel of increasing a country’s diplomatic network as they are cost-effective than fully-fledged missions because of the lower costs attached to maintain Honorary Consuls as they serve for free and only require to be reimbursed expenses incurred in offering their services,” PBO wrote in a report November 2021.