From South Africa to Belgium, Germany, Finland and France: William Ruto's sky-high presidency

Shortly after taking office, President William Ruto gained a reputation for his frequent foreign trips. In his first 20 months, he made 62 visits to 38 countries, a record that partly fueled discontent among Kenyan youth, culminating in the June 2024 protests that later disrupted his engagements. 

The President has since returned to an active international travel schedule in recent months, maintaining steady movement abroad since the beginning of 2025.

A few weeks after returning from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in mid-May, he travelled to South Africa and is expected shortly in Belgium, Finland and France.

The government says the trips are aimed at strengthening Kenya’s economic partnerships, attracting investment, expanding trade opportunities and advancing the country’s foreign policy interests.

However, the journeys come at a high cost,  often relying on chartered luxury jets that cost between Sh1.1 million and Sh1.7 million per flight hour, translating to hundreds of millions of shillings per trip.

Pressure is once again building, with critics arguing that the hundreds of millions spent on presidential foreign travel could be redirected to priority sectors to ease the cost of living for Kenyans already struggling to make ends meet.

Political analyst Prof Macharia Munene said the use of private jets “enabled him to travel in luxury that cost millions of shillings while Kenyans were crying over the exorbitant cost of living.”

At the time President Ruto left for Azerbaijan on May 16, the country was already facing a fuel price shock following a record increase announced on May 14. In the days that followed, matatu operators parked their vehicles in protest, paralysing parts of the economy for two days.

This week, his former deputy Rigathi Gachagua also criticised the President’s frequent overseas trips on luxury jets, saying such spending should be reviewed and resources redirected to more critical sectors.

He said that reducing unnecessary travel and other non-essential administrative expenditure could save up to Sh150 billion in the next financial year, funds he argued should be redirected to priority areas such as health and education.

“In recent months, the government has continued to channel billions into travel, hospitality and administrative overheads while ordinary Kenyans are being asked to sacrifice more. Official supplementary estimates show that Sh8.4 billion was allocated to State House alone for hospitality, domestic travel and vehicle operations, while the Controller of Budget flagged Sh10.8 billion in travel spending in just six months,” Gachagua said.

The Controller of Budget, in a report on budget implementation, noted that the national government spent Sh10.8 billion on travel over the six months to December 2025. Of this, Sh3.13 billion went to foreign travel, while Sh7.74 billion was spent on domestic travel.

“The government must lead by example by reducing non-essential travel, hospitality, consultancies, duplication of agencies and other administrative overheads. We propose a minimum 3 per cent reduction (Sh150 billion) in non-essential administrative expenditure, with the savings redirected to agriculture, health, education and job creation,” he added.

Earlier, Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro had also presented proposals to MPs identifying areas where government spending could be trimmed. He said the measures could save up to Sh100 billion over the next financial year.

Among the areas Nyoro identified as key to reducing government expenditure is foreign travel, where he proposed limiting official trips to only critical engagements. He argued that the savings could be redirected to ease the cost of living for Kenyans, reduce reliance on borrowing to plug budget gaps, and lower the tax burden.

Despite criticism that President Ruto’s foreign travels have delivered limited tangible benefits, the government has continued to resist calls to scale down expenditure, including spending on international trips.

At a recent meeting with the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC), Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi ruled out any reduction in the allocation for foreign travel.

“One of our friends is telling us to cut. He said we should cut money from foreign travel and CDF,” Mbadi said, referring to the Kiharu MP who had appeared before the committee with proposals that could have saved the government about Sh100 billion.

Mbadi further dismissed potential savings from cutting foreign travel as minimal and unlikely to make a meaningful fiscal difference.

“If we remove the entire budget for foreign travel and ensure no one leaves the country for a year, the savings would be Sh8.5 billion,” he said, adding that the amount was too small to make a meaningful impact and would instead undermine government operations and international representation.

He went on to criticise the proposal’s framing, saying: “You talk so loudly like you want people to believe that you are the one who is learned, yet you do not even talk with figures.” Mbadi also appeared to challenge MPs to consider their own spending habits, noting that Parliament also accounts for a huge share of travel costs.

“Out of that Sh8 billion, Parliament consumes Sh3 billion and the Executive consumes only Sh4.9 billion, out of which Foreign Affairs consumes Sh2.9 billion… foreign affairs without travelling, what sort of foreign affairs would that be?” he posed.

“So when you hear people standing here and making wild statements about how we can save money by cutting foreign travel, making Kenyans believe that Kenya is a travelling nation with a government that spends so much on foreign travel, it is a myth. Sh8.5 billion for the whole government, including the Judiciary, national government and all ministries… we are not spending so much,” he said.

Mbadi’s resistance to a slimmer budget was echoed by several MPs, suggesting that Nyoro’s proposals may struggle to gain traction when eventually tabled before the House.

Beyond approving the overall budget, Parliament also plays a key role in shaping taxation policy, including levies on petroleum products, as any revisions must go through the National Assembly.

“There is really no place to cut. Even if we tried, we would not find anywhere to cut. We have already reduced our development allocation by Sh100 billion,” said Budget Appropriation Committee (BAC) chair Samuel Atandi.