The County Government of Nairobi will spend Ksh500 million to acquire new houses for the Governor and her deputy. The latter position is, however, still vacant.
Reports indicate that City Hall will spend the money in purchasing palatial homes for Governor Anne Kananu and her deputy.
Documents tabled before the Nairobi County Assembly by the Budget and Appropriations Committee and quoted by the Business Daily indicate that in the annual County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) for the Financial Year 2022/23, City Hall intends to purchase homes in some of the posh estates within the city.
“The County Government of Nairobi plans to purchase Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s residences amounting to Ksh500 million in the next financial year which begins on July 1, 2022,” read part of the report.
Notably, this plan will be contravening a financial directive by the Senate. City Hall will be spending more than five times the Senate’s cap for such a project.
Senate recommended that for such a project, the governor’s official house should not cost more than Ksh45 million, the deputy's home should not exceed Ksh40 million and the County Government should not spend more than Ksh35 million for the Speaker's home.
Further, the allocation comes against a 2020 directive by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to all the 47 counties to build residential houses for their leadership within two years.
SRC noted that building a house would help counties cut down on monthly rent expenditure.
The National Treasury had raised concerns over the continued spending of Ksh5 million in monthly allowance to governors, Ksh4.5 million to deputy governors and Ksh3.75 million to speakers for their houses.
City Hall had considered using the Mayor’s official residence along Isaac Gathanju Close in Lavington as the Governor’s residence but the house was occupied by former County Executive Committee (CEC) member Ann Lokidor.
However, in November 2018 the former County Executive Committee was evicted from the residence.
