CoB Report Unmasks Sakaja’s Rotten City Hall with only 4 Percent Expenditure on Development

BY KAMAU ANTONY, MARCH 4,2023

Nairobi Governor Sakaja spent on Sh 233.53 million on development from a Sh13.36 billion available between June 2023 to December 31st for the financial year 2023-2024.

The County was listed by the Controler of Budget Margaret Nyakango listed Nairobi as one of the counties spending less on development and using more than 60% on recurrent expenditure.

The budget implementation review report for the first six months of of the FY 2023-24 has now put Governor Johnson Sakaja whose executive alone spent more on domestic trips.

The County in total has an approved budget of Sh42.33 billion and had allocated Ksh 14.01 billion (33.1%) and Ksh 28:32 billion for development and recurrent programs respectively.

This as per the report was an increase of 10.4% compared to the previous FY.

Nairobi is expected to receive Ksh 20.07 billion as equitable share raised through national collections, Kshb19.42 from Own Source Revenue,Ksh 606 .56 million as conditional grants ,Ksh 270 million as Appropriations In Aid( A.I.D) and a balance of Ksh 1.66 billion from the 2022/2023 budget.

Within this period, the county received Sh 8.33 billion as equitable share,Ksh 3 million as additional grants and withdrew Sh 450 million from the 2022/2023 budget.

The County had only raised Ksh 3.81billion from its own source revenue streams.

The CoB indicated that the total amount available for the county in this period was Ksh13.36 billion and that Ksh 10.48 billion had been approved for withdrawal from the County Revenue Fund.

Interestingly, Ksh 233.53 million had been used for development and a whopping Ksh 10.25 billion for recurrent programs.

The county as per the CoB report has derailed development despite the clear approval of over Ksh 10.81 billion from the CoB.The biggest chunk of these funds were used on salaries and  emoluments.

Governor Sakaja has been on record that clearing of pending bills and delayed disbursement of funds in to blame for the slow pace of development and as per the CoB report,the County had only spent Ksh 448.79milion on settling pending bills.As of the beginning of FY 2023/2024, pending bills stood at Ksh 107.33 billion.

It is not clear why the County did not clear most of the bills after recieving close to Sh70 billion before the closure of the 2022/2023 FY but the DPP had raised questions over payments to firms suspected to have supplied air.

A look at what the executive spent in the first six months of the current financial year however reveals that the county is getting it’s priorities upside down.While the CoB report indicates that a remittance of Ksh 1.127 billion was made for insurance,the County workers Union has been raising complaints over the same.

The County Executive led by Sakaja used Ksh 475.06 million for domestic travel,Ksh 115. 65 million for foreign travel making traveling expenditure alone bigger than the amount used for development.

Read also: Illegal Developers Overpower City Hall, Says Sakaja’s CEC for Urban Planning

The County used Ksh 60 million on hospitality supplies ,Ksh 47 million in training expenses,another Ksh 41 million in specialised supplies and Ksh 10 million in communication supplies.

A breakdown of the foreign travel indicates the Governor and his executive used Ksh 8,993,450 million on a personal branding and people professional summit ,Ksh 8,782,764 million to attend the 8th United Nations General Assembly Summit in New York,unexplained trip to Canada costing Ksh 6 ,761,520, per diem for a conference in Switzerland costing Ksh 5,368,497 and a Japan trip that cost Ksh 5,080,800 million

Sakaja was called out by Embakasi East MP Babu Owino who critisized him of bad policies and misuse of county funds.

“Pesa ya Nairobians inaenda Kwa Rice and beans as if our children are rodents,” Babu posted while sharing a news feed by Citizen TV. This was in reference to the Schools feeding program that is also under scrutiny for suspected diversion of funds

The Governor was last year on the spot again when the CoB in its first quarter report indicated that  Nairobi County was among ten counties that did not spend a penny on development.

During the period under review for the first quarter , Nairobi County had already used Ksh.176 million in four months for domestic travel, Ksh.11.9 million on foreign trips, Ksh.51.8 million on fuel alone and Ksh.28 million on hospitality.

As of now, Sakaja is under pressure over the pending bills saga where big divisions have emerged between the executive and the county assembly. A source at the county confined to us that  some suppliers have been earmarked not to be paid while only a few are walking away with millions despite evidence of not Supplying anything.

Very senior officers at the County and believed to be enjoying support from the governor have been in bad terms with their juniors especially on matters pending bills and one of them is Chief Officer Finance Asha Abdi, County Executive for Finance Charles Kerich and Head of Treasury Martha Wambugu.

Asha for instance is believed to have  benefited from unauthorized payments amounting to Sh.18, 558,500million to companies linked to her.

This started last year when a complaint letter from Chief Officer Disaster Management and Coordination Bramuel Simiyu revealed how the county has been losing millions through fake payments approved by the CoB.

The letter dated 10/11/2023 is titled; “Unauthorized Commitments and Transactions on IFMIS for the disaster management and coordination sector.”

According to Bramuel, a series of irregular and unauthorized commitments and transactions were made on the IFMIS platform affecting the sector’s budget.

The payments made were for ghost suppliers prompting him to write to the Finance Chief Officer Asha Abdi who authorizes payments on the IFMIS platform. Chief Officers for various sectors are always the first approvers for any payments to be made.

“It has come to my attention that there have been and there continues to be number of irregular and/or unauthorized commitments and transactions made on the IFMIS platform that affects the sector budget,” the letter reads in its opening paragraph

It further reads: “As the sector’s Accounting Officer and the First Approver on the IFMIS system,these commitments done without my knowledge and approval have the potential effect of affecting our ability to deliver on the programs we have committed to in our ADP,lead to audit queries and/or contribute to potential loss of public funds.”

Even as the CoB raises questions on the first six months,there are fears that more shocking details for remaining period could arise.

The County is already facing accusations of paying  another whooping Sh 158,935,250 million  to prominent law firms

The work plan for the payments was prepared on 21st December, 2023 as revealed and seen by investigative agencies keen on fraudulent payments at the county where one firm got paid  Sh43 million.

Several county staff have been investigated for various offenses and they include, Kevin Musamia, Vivian Mavua, Ambrose Musau, Vivian Mavua, Beth Muthoni, Denis Muia, Brian Oyando, live high end lifestyle, with state-of-the-art-houses and nice looking cars.

There is also Stephen Mafura, Mary Maina Wangui girlfriend to former acting county secretary Jairus Musumba, Peter Gitau from procurement, untouchable Caroline Mwangi who normally calls shorts at assembly leadership.

Another scenario is whereby some junior county staff with the likes of Charles Onyango Masella who work at the public service board is chewing ladies with corrupt earned money, he has bought an Mpesa lady a red car and bought her Sh 200k phone.

Investigative authorities are also investigating some companies that were recently paid without due processes.

The list of companies in our possession are said to have delivered nothing at the county and were paid huge amount of money.