President William Ruto has restricted the trips abroad by members of the executive to 45 days a year. He added that no official would be allowed to stay outside the country for more than seven days in a row.
The Chief of Staff, Felix Koskei shared a memo dated 29 July 2023, that was addressed to the Attorney General and Cabinet Secretaries. Within the memo, all official trips abroad would be endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs.
Cabinet Secretaries, PS, CASs, chairpersons and CEOs of state corporations would only be allowed to travel for events bearing on policy. In addition to that, they would only be allowed to travel for more than 15 days per quarter.
“Non-essential foreign travel remains suspended,” the memo read.
Further in the memo, the size of the delegation would be limited to four people for the Cabinet Secretaries, inclusive of the Cabinet Secretary. Personal Assistants and security personnel would not be allowed to travel.
This is in continuation of the suspension of non-important foreign travel that was put in place.
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Koskei mentioned in the memo that the requests for travel would be obtained from the President through his office. Technical officers supposed to be carried along for trips abroad would be required to submit requests seven working days before.
The ministries were advised to go for virtual participation in the international conferences and workshops. Approval for foreign travel would not be granted for internationally hosted training, meetings and events organised by local and regional-based institutions.
The limitation of travel is in response to the address given by the presidential aspirant, Reuben Kigame. He called out the state seeking them to reduce the frequency of their travels in and out of the country.
Shortly after Kigame’s address, people compared the frequency of Ruto’s visits and that of Uhuru’s. Uhuru’s visits were found to be allegedly less frequent compared to Ruto’s in his first few months of office.
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