At the advent of devolution in 2013, imprests were introduced as a remedy for procurement bottlenecks to payments of unplanned mini expenditures of up to Sh2 million by county officials.

However, years later, imprests-- a form of cash advance or a float-- have now been turned into avenues of plunder of public resources by unscrupulous county government officials through fictitious requisitions.

Abuse of imprests has seen taxpayers lose millions of shillings in an intricate network involving both senior and junior county officials.

The latest reports by the Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) show that abuse of advance payment and fictitious requisitions are now the newest strategies used to steal public resources.

The reports covering the financial years 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 have unearthed revelations of how counties may have lost millions of shillings were withdrawn through fake imprests, which were neither surrendered nor supported by payment vouchers.

For instance, between 2023 and 2025, counties may have lost more than Sh500 million through abuse of advance payment. Ms Gathungu has revealed that in the financial year 2023/2024 alone,12 counties failed to account for cash advance totalling Sh230million.

Her report indicates that some officers held multiple imprests, contrary to the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015 that require temporary imprests be returned or accounted for within seven working days, after the officer resumes duty.

Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu.

Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group

Additionally, Regulation 93(8) prohibits issuing new imprests before the previous ones are fully surrendered or recovered from the officer’s salary.

The breakdown of unaccounted imprests shows Turkana with Sh85 million, Samburu (Sh39.3 million), Mombasa (Sh25.8 million), Bungoma (Sh21.6 million), Tana River (Sh19.8 million), Embu (Sh12.8 million), Siaya and Nandi (Sh6.3 million each), Kisumu (Sh5.1 million), Nyandarua (Sh3 million), Busia (Sh1.3 million), and Kiambu with Sh801,440.

“The County Executives failed to maintain an imprests register indicating details of the payee, amount issued, imprests warrant numbers, dates of issue, due dates and dates of surrender contrary to Regulation 93(4) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015, which requires that upon issuance of cash advance, the details of the applicants should be recorded in an imprests register,” the report reads.

A review of the imprest register for the year ending June 30,2025 for Isiolo County maintained revealed that two officers were issued with multiple imprests amounting to Sh8.4million.

One officer was issued with cash advance totalling to Sh1.1million and another amounting to Sh7.3million.

"However, no explanation was provided why the officers were issued with multiple imprests before surrender of earlier ones," adds the report by Ms Gathungu.

Turkana Governor Jeremiah Lomorukai. Auditor-General's report shows that Turkana has unaccounted imprests of Sh85 million.

Photo credit: Sammy Lutta I Nation Media Group

Further, the county government irregularly paid Sh4million for an alleged facilitation of the Garbatulla land adjudication exercise and issuance of allotment letters by the National Land Commission in Isiolo town using a temporary imprest.

A review of the surrender documents revealed that the amount was issued as advance payment to various county staff and National Government land experts who participated in the exercise for 14 days.

During the period, a review of documents in Wajir County revealed that amounts of Sh53.8million and Sh95.6million were transferred from the Central Bank of Kenya's recurrent and development accounts, to the standing imprest and deposit accounts respectively maintained at a commercial bank.

The commercial bank accounts were subsequently used for making normal operations payments.

In Embu County, a review of the imprest register revealed overdue outstanding balance of Sh21.8million issued between July 2023 and June 30,2025, which has not been surrendered or accounted for. Further, some officers in the county held multiple imprests contrary to the law.

In Machakos, a review of records revealed that advance payments amounting to Sh104.7million were issued to staff. However, overdue balance of Sh3.6 million had not been surrendered as at June 30,2025, contrary to the regulations.

For Kiambu, the audit found that the county issued standing imprests totalling Sh1 million to offices in various departments for procurement of donors and printing materials.

In Samburu, payments of Sh1.3 million had not been surrendered long after their due dates and the county had not initiated their recoveries, while the Uasin Gishu register was not updated. It was observed that details relating to date of surrender were recorded in the imprest register. It was therefore not possible to confirm that surrender of imprests was done within seven working days after returning to duty station as required.

In Nandi County, registers were not consistently updated with details relating to the date of imprest issuance and surrender while in Kakamega, records showed that the county had outstanding imprests amounting to Sh18.3million.

Nandi Governor Stephen Sang.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

Siaya County had temporary imprests due for surrender on or before June 30,2024 that had not been surrendered by June 30,2025. Besides the audit reports, the EACC has in the past revealed that abuse of advance payment have been turned into cash cows by county government officials.

The agency said it has been investigating several cases where cash advances in counties have become avenues for theft, revealing that “people have been collecting imprests as if it was pocket money”.

“Imprest is one of the most abused public resources, in both national and county governments,” EACC boss Abdi Mohamud said in a recent interview.

Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.

EMatara@ke.nationmedia.com.