Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, on Tuesday, May 23, was forced to respond to allegations that his government was awarding tenders at inflated budgets.
A letter purportedly issued by Nairobi County was widely circulated alleging that the county would spend Ksh1 billion on stationery.
According to Sakaja, such a tender was an absurdity. He further called upon Kenyans to be media literate and not consume propaganda shared online.
“This is absurd. Not everything you see typed is true,” the Governor vehemently denied the letter as having originated from his office.
The unverified letter had awarded a company based at Industrial Area, Nairobi, to be the county's official office stationery supplier.
“We are pleased to inform you that your company was shortlisted among others based on your quotation.
“It has been awarded the order to supply office stationary as per the quoted value of Ksh1 billion,” the now-flagged letter read in part.
According to the letter, the company was to be given a 45 per cent advance payment, which would be wired immediately upon acknowledgement of the order. At the same time, the rest would be cleared upon supply of the stationary mattery.
“All items to be delivered on or before 180 days and substandard quality would result in penalty and/or prosecution,” the letter detailed further.
The letter had raised debate on the spending of counties at a time when most were overburdened by pending bills.
A meeting held on March 22, 2023, between the Senate Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations and Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o revealed that counties owed suppliers an accumulative Pending Bills of Kshs 157 billion by the County Executives and Kshs 1.63 billion by County Assemblies.
Nairobi County had the biggest share of pending bills at Ksh100 billion followed by Wajir at Ksh5.6 billion, Kiambu at Kshs 4.98billion, Mombasa at Ksh4.97 billion, Machakos at Ksh2.88 billion and Muranga at Ksh2.75 billion.
