A section of Nairobi City County Assembly members have accused unnamed powerful figures in President William Ruto's State House of controlling the revenue collection in Nairobi.
In a statement sent to Kenyans.co.ke on Friday, members of the county assembly's Energy Committee alleged that the revenues from parking, licensing, and other levies were being collected in an opaque manner.
The legislators alleged that their investigations had unearthed massive irregularities, stating that even Governor Johnson Sakaja has been kept in the dark.
“We (MCAs) don't know the identity of the owners or they (finance and ICT officers) don't know the identity of the owners or operators of revenue collection systems even which contract they are operating under. We don't even know which banks they are operating under,” the committee Vice Chair and Kileleshwa ward MCA Robert Alai.
The MCA subsequently in a statement appealed to Ruto to direct his officials to transfer the county's revenue management system to Sakaja.
Kenyans.co.ke could not independently verify the claims by the city legislators.
"As the Vice Chairman Energy and ICT Committee and on behalf of other committee members being threatened, we demand that President William Ruto tell the officers in State House to leave Governor Sakaja to manage the Nairobi Revenue System," Alai stated.
According to Alai, the county currently is collecting just Ksh12 million per day.
The report by the committee came days after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) listed Nairobi among counties being investigated over irregularities in revenue collection.
"The systems are increasingly being manipulated to divert public funds to private individuals through collusion involving Governors, senior county officials, and companies providing the revenue management service," EACC on Thursday said in a statement.
Nairobi, Kilifi, Kajiado, and Narok were among the counties put on the spot by EACC on allegations of serious accountability deficits in the revenue management systems.
Nairobi has one of the highest revenues in the country.
