Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, is on a collision course with Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director-General Mohamed Badi, following his decision to reject assenting to a bill allocating more than Ksh15 billion to the new body, on April 15.
However, the governor detailed the reasons behind his decision, going on to highlight a violation of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act as the foundation of his refusal to sign off on the Bill.
Sonko expressed his issues regarding the Bill in a letter sent out to Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi.
He argued that only a maximum of Ksh520 million could be allocated under Emergency Fund in line with section 113 of the PFM Act which says that payments exceeding 2% of last audited accounts cannot be made out of the Fund.
“In the last audited accounts for the financial year ending June 30, 2019, the county reported consolidated revenue of Ksh26 billion and therefore, the maximum that may be provided under the Emergency Fund is Ksh520,209,510,” Sonko's letter reads in part.
He then went on to argue that the proposed bill allocated funds to functions which he never transferred from the county government to the NMS following his deal with President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“I do hereby refuse to assent to the bill for the reasons contained in the attached memorandum, and accordingly, I do hereby refer the bill back to the Assembly for consideration in accordance with section 24(3) (4) and (5) of the County Governments Act,” his letter further reads.
The embattled governor maintained that amendments were done without the input of the county’s finance executive, a breach of the provisions of section 131 (2) of the PFM.
On her part, Elachi stated that she was not surprised by his latest move.
“I was expecting it. If he cannot respect what he singed at State House then he should come out and say so, not open a fight with the assembly as we are only following the law,” she revealed to Daily Nation.
Sonko recently called off a meeting called by the NMS, saying it violates a ban on public gatherings to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“There is a presidential directive expressly prohibiting all public gatherings,” he said, “It is, therefore, the height of impunity for the meeting to take place," he declared at the time.
