Audit reveals why Ruto team’s climate fight is failing

A new audit has exposed critical failures in the President William Ruto administration's management of the country’s climate response.

The review by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu reveals a system hampered by an inactive oversight council, a dormant multi-billion shilling fund, and an inability to track international finance.

This comes despite President Ruto’s vigorous positioning of himself and Kenya as frontline leaders in the global climate struggle.

The Rapid Assessment Report on the National Government’s Action to Address Climate Change, tabled in Parliament, shows the government struggling to realise its ambitions.

It exposes how the government has failed to translate ideas into functional systems, leaving the nation vulnerable.

President Ruto has consistently framed climate change in urgent, sweeping terms.

Just months before the audit's release, he told the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) that climate change is an existential threat to humanity, demanding joint global action.

He has rallied Africa for a united front, calling for bold leadership and practical solutions.

However, the audit reveals a telling paralysis at the heart of the machinery meant to wage this existential fight.

The National Climate Change Council (NCCC), the legal body mandated to coordinate all national climate action, has never been operationalised.

"The National Climate Change Council, designated as the overarching coordination body, had not been operationalised as at the time of the assessment," the report states.

Gathungu said the situation has crippled national coordination and monitoring, citing the court case of 2017, which sought to bar civil society organisations as members of the council.

Furthermore, the law requires every government ministry to establish a Climate Change Unit to implement strategies.

The audit found that of 23 national entities reviewed, only eight had complied, leaving the administration without the institutional infrastructure to execute its own plans.

Critical voices are also excluded, the report shows, singling out that the Agriculture ministry has no seat at the council, yet a vulnerable sector and the second-largest emitter.

On the global stage, President Ruto has been a forceful advocate for climate justice and finance.

At the Africa Climate Summit, he accused Western leaders of breaking a "climate blood pact" by failing to deliver promised financial support.

He has appealed for international solidarity, urging reformed financial systems and lower costs for Africa, and championed new phases of continental adaptation programs.

His advocacy starkly contrasts with the financial disarray at home as documented by the Auditor General’s report.

The Climate Change Fund, established by law as the central financing vehicle for climate projects, remains non-operational.

Simultaneously, the audit established that the National Treasury has no system to track or report on international climate finance received.

The government cannot account for how much money has flowed in or how it has been spent.

“The National Treasury does not have information on the amount of funds mobilised, as climate finance is not tracked,” the report states.

“In addition, while policy frameworks acknowledge the importance of private sector engagement, practical instruments to access private sector climate finance are underdeveloped.”

This means that even if the global funds Ruto lobbies for were to materialise, his administration currently lacks the apparatus to manage them transparently.

Further to this, President Ruto has positioned Kenya as a climate solutions hub.

At the 2025 UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-7), he urged the world to "turn COP30 commitments into concrete action," warning that climate disasters cause billions of shillings in losses.

He said that for Africa, "climate change is not an abstraction, it is a daily experience", a reality underscored by his declaration of a national drought emergency in late 2025 affecting 20 counties.

The audit, however, suggests that the urgency is not mirrored in domestic policy upkeep.

It emerged that the National Adaptation Plan (2015–2030), a key strategy, has not been updated since 2016, despite rapidly escalating climate impacts.

Auditors established that sectoral plans that were developed by the environment ministry often lack measurable targets and robust monitoring.

In its response to the audit, the State Department for Environment and Climate Change defended its record.

Even so, it did not contest the core findings of the inactive council, dormant fund, or missing tracking systems.

Gathungu wants the government to activate the climate council, operationalise the Climate Change Fund, and install transparent financial tracking.