Nairobi MCAs Summon Firms Providing Revenue Collection Services Amid Graft Claims: "Open Servers"

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja is set to face more pressure from Members of the County Assembly in regard to the mystery surrounding revenue collection.

The ad-hoc committee that is set to start probing the revenue collection system now claims that the system has never been audited since its automation in 2013.

The committee is already putting in doubt the annual amounts declared as total revenue collected.

The committee led by Majority leader Peter Imwatok is set to start its public hearing session at Charter Hall on December 13 and 14.

The revenue collection in the city according to the MCA is a mystery and governor Sakaja has himself said he is not sure who is in charge of revenue collection.

"We are alarmed to discover that the revenue systems have never been audited since their automation in 2013, making it impossible to determine the actual revenue collected," Imwatok said in a statement read on behalf of the committee.

"Moreover the ownership and administration details on Nairobi pay remain elusive, raising serious concerns. There is no documented agreement between Nairobi City County Government and the said Nairobi pay" the statement further reads.

The ad-hoc committee was established pursuant to standing order No.211 of the County Assembly Assembly with the mandate to address the decline in revenue collection and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the current revenue collection system.

It has initiated meetings with key witnesses including Finance and ICT CECMs, county officials and service providers like Web Tribe( Jambo Pay) National Bank( Noveta), KRA and many others the committee believes will be helpful to its work.

Imwatok has previously criticized the governor for praising the collection of Sh10 billion in the last financial year, stating that the county should be collecting more than KSh 18 billion as of now.

Nairobi recorded its highest revenue collection in 2015 which stood at Sh12.6 billion during the era of former governor Evans Kidero.

The county has the ability to collect KSh 65 billion as per the Controler of Budget recommendations.

MCAs at the county have been lamenting confusion over revenue collection and have claimed that the county has been using intimidation tactics towards those asking pertinent questions.

There have been serious concerns about the state revenue collection in the capital city especially when it was under the Kenya Revenue Authority when the Nairobi Metropolitan Services was in charge and the MCAs fear that there could be some sinister cooperation between officials in the national government and City Hall to divert revenues.

City Hall targets to collect KSh 19.5 billion from its own source revenue this FY and has consequently increased taxes in the Finance Act 2023.

Last month, Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai claimed that the national government is still in charge of revenue collection at City HalI.

The legislator alleged that some faceless individuals are in charge of the Nairobi Revenue Authority.

“We want to know who are these faceless individuals behind this NRA system because we can't collect what we don't know," Alai said.

Revenue collection in Nairobi was handled by the Kenya Revenue Authority from 2019 to early this year after the county got back functions that had been transferred to the national government.