Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has criticised the Nairobi County Government's move to change the principal banker of all Nairobi County healthcare facilities.
The sentiments by the Nairobi lawmaker come a week after the County Secretary and Head of Public Service, Godfrey Akumali, directed all county health facilities to transition their bank accounts from a tier-one bank to another bank.
According to Akumali, in a notice on November 5, which was directed to all officers in charge of County Health facilities, the decision was made during the 69th meeting of the Nairobi City County Executive Committee held on October 28.
"This correspondence hereby serves to communicate the resolution of the County Executive Committee to request that you complete the attached forms to facilitate the opening of your respective accounts," Akumali said.
"Kindly attach all the required documents and submit the completed forms to the office of the County Executive Committee Member, Finance and Economic Planning by Friday, 7th November, 2025," he added.
In a statement on Wednesday, November 12, Sifuna questioned the county government's move to shift the accounts, spotlighting that the move is likely being fuelled by corruption.
"The health facilities in Nairobi have been banking with a tier one Bank with a solid history and reputation," Sifuna said.
"How you wake up one day and direct all of them to move to a tier 3 bank cannot be explained any other way than that corruption is at play," he added.
All county government bank accounts are required to be in a single bank to promote accountability, transparency and efficient financial oversight.
Additionally, having bank accounts in one bank enables the county government to have an easier time budgeting, reporting and auditing.
This is done in line with the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act (2012) and PFM (County Governments) Regulations (2015) in Kenya generally require all county government revenues to be remitted to a central County Revenue Fund (CRF) account.
