Fourteen major government projects had a total of $4 billion in funding over the last five years but left projects partially completed with $2.4 billion of the funds unused, according to a press conference from Gathungu covered by The Eastleigh Voice and Capital News.

Gathungu told reporters that the 14 projects now risk lapsing without achieving their goals.

The Mombasa Gate Bridge, which will replace the ferry service that connects Mombasa Island to mainland Kenya, used only $7.2 million of its $378.8 million budget. The East Africa Skills Transformation, an initiative to improve the quality of Kenya’s vocational training programs, used only 61% of its $8.5 million budget. The Kapchorwa-Suam-Kitale and Eldoret Bypass road projects used only 65% of their $181.5 million budget.

When a country does not use its funds from other nations within the allotted time period, it must pay commitment fees to keep the funding available for future years. Commitment fees have cost Kenya $50.8 million in the last five years, according to Gathungu.

This highlighted “significant financial mismanagement and delays in implementation,” The Eastleigh Voice reported. Capital News said Gathungu  highlighted “stalled development and chronic underperformance.”

The unused funds might be understandable if Kenya was allocating too much money to development projects, but that is not the case. A Kenyan law from 2012 requires that at least 30% of the country’s budget be spent on things like infrastructure and business subsidies. The current budget allocates only 25%, and the previous year’s budget set aside just 15%, Gathungu said.

Kenya received $2.6 billion in aid from foreign countries in 2022, including $1 billion from the U.S. Most American funding comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which sent $629.7 million to Kenya in 2024. That was the sixth-most out of 41 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Almost one-third of the money was to combat HIV/AIDS, with significant amounts also going towards education, water sanitation, maternal and child health and environmental protection.

Kenya’s predicament is a perfect example of the dilemma surrounding foreign aid. At least some U.S. funding likely contributed to life-saving programs, but other money could be sitting around in unused slush funds.

(The #WasteOfTheDay is from forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.)