Revenue collected in Nairobi County since 2013 is unknown

Nairobi County Assembly ADHOC Committee on Revenue Chairman who is also The Assembly Majority leader Peter with the team from Jambo Pay during a revenue investigation at the County Assembly on Thursday, December 05, 2023. [Samson Wire, Standard]

The exact amount of revenue that has been collected in Nairobi County since 2013 is unknown.

 A special committee formed to investigate the dwindling revenue under the Johnson Sakaja administration has been dropping, has revealed.

In their update on Thursday evening after their sittings, the Ad Hoc committee said the system used to collect revenue in Nairobi has not been audited for 10 years.

“We are alarmed to discover that the revenue systems have never been audited since their automation in 2013,” the committee chairman Peter Imwatok said.

He added; “this has made it impossible to accurately determine the actual revenue collected. Moreover, the ownership of the Nairobi Pay remains elusive, raising serious concerns,”

The committee noted that there is no documented agreement between Nairobi County Government and the said Nairobi pay.

“It is purported that officials from the national government who are neither known nor seen own the revenue system,” Imwatok added.

He said during their probe, key witnesses will be grilled among them County Executive Committee Members for Finance, ICT KRA, and other service providers, including Webtribe.

The committee said on December 13th and 14th will be required to give their views at Charter Hall touching the dwindling revenue.

During a recent meeting, the Committee noted that since 2015, during Evans Kidero’s regime, no other governor has been able to collect more than Sh12.5 billion.

The committee said they will investigate and reveal how tax and revenue paid by Nairobi residents are collected and utilized.

At the same time, they will be required to establish where the revenue collection systems are located.

For a long time, there have been queries over the efficiency, access, and performance of the revenue collection system that was set up for Sh160 million.

The system dubbed Nairobi Revenue System came into use during the reign of defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services that took over some county roles during the reign of Mike Sonko.