Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho on Tuesday made a special appeal before the Senate asking the house to intervene in his regime's troubles.
The governor told a Senate Committee that among his troubles is a huge amount of money he wants his administration helped to collect from the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) and other state agencies.
Appearing before a house watchdog committee, Joho admitted that his government has difficulties in collecting land rates from KDF as part of the biggest defaulters.
[caption caption="Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho appearing before the Senate previously(PHOTO/COURTESY)"]
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He told the Public Accounts and Investment Committee that the defaulters owe his government Kshs28 billion all being land rates.
He noted that most of the money owed is held by the state parastatals.
“Out of the Kshs28 billion,70 percent is owed to us by the national government like for instance the Kenya Defence Force. As a county we cannot walk to the Kenya Navy Barracks, which is among the biggest defaulters and demand to be paid our dues,” noted Governor Joho.
“We are asking this house committee and the Senate to help us recover the money because there is very little we can do. It is not possible to auction a KDF barrack,” he appealed.
The governor was appearing before the Committee to clear his name over audit queries raised by Auditor General Edward Ouko.
Mr Ouko had raised concerns over the county government's expenditures during the 2014/ 2015 Financial year.
Joho told the house that even though the county was surpassing its revenue collection targets, they still have debts derailing them from realizing their full potential.
In the 2013/2014 financial year, Mombasa County collected revenues amounting to Sh1.6 billion and Sh2.4 billion in the following year.
Records before the house committee indicated that Kshs2.9 billion was collected in Mombasa in the 2015/2016 financial year while Kshs 3.1 billion was collected in 2016/2017 and 2017/2018.
The county boss told senators that the county would be better placed economically if it is allowed to get taxes from the goods that pass through the port of Mombasa to the rest of the Kenyan market.
[caption caption="Mombasa County Governor Hassan Joho (PHOTO/COURTESY)"]
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