Nairobi Governo Mike Sonko on Tuesday, September 3, spent over 9 hours at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
The governor was summoned by the commission to answer questions concerning multimillion garbage collection and disposal tenders awarded to 13 firms by City Hall.
The Nairobi governor arrived at Integrity Centre early in the morning at 6 a.m. and left in the evening at around 4 p.m.
However, Sonko disclosed that he was only questioned for two hours.
He revealed that the interrogation mainly centered on concerns raised by the environment committee about firms that got tenders without proper qualifications.
The county boss was accompanied by EALA MP Simon Mbugua, a section of Nairobi MCAs, his chief of staff and his lawyer Cecil Miller.
He further maintained that most of the questions were on procurement and that he was questioned as the overall in-charge of the city county, Daily Nation reports.
“As county boss, I don’t sit in the procurement committee and I’m not the accounting officer but I have the general responsibility for my officers,” asserted Sonko.
In addition, he informed the EACC officials that when he learned of the select committee’s concerns, he blacklisted the companies and stopped any payments due to them as well suspending the environment chief officer, who is the accounting officer of the sector, together with the then environment executive and the former county secretary.
Sonko also insisted that he had no control over procurement.
“That is being done by procurement officers and accounting officers but I stamped my authority once I heard of the matters raised by relieving from duty the concerned officers,” he highlighted.
While leaving EACC offices at 4 p.m., Sonko addressed the media assuring residents that he was not under probe.
“I’m not under investigation, but I was summoned as the boss of the county to come and shed light.
"It took us two hours to record the statements as I was responding to each of the 13 queries, but it took too long as I was waiting for officers, who were supposed to take a statement from me,” disclosed the governor.
The county boss had been summoned the previous week, but requested the summons to be postponed as he was out of the country with his family.
This was after Nairobi County Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in July, revealed that officials at City Hall’s environment department could not account for over Ksh160 million paid to contracted garbage collectors.
The county government irregularly paid Ksh162 million to 11 companies contracted to collect garbage at the county but could not submit payment vouchers made to the companies, the list of the 11 firms and their contractual documents to support the payment.
