Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko on Thursday, October 15, rejected the Nairobi City County Appropriation Bill, 2020.
A statement to newsrooms by Nairobi Communications Jacob Elkanah indicated that Sonko referred the bill back to the assembly for consideration who claimed that the budget had been swapped at the last minute.
"In my Memorandum to the Speaker of the County Assembly, I have outlined in detail illegalities and inconsistencies contained in the Budget that was presented by cartels from State House, Harambee House and the Nairobi Metropolitan Services at the last minute, swapping it with the original Budget Proposals earlier submitted by the County Executive, and in complete disregard of the advisory issued by the Controller of Budget on 27th July, 2020," reads the statement.
Sonko stated that there were illegal amendments to the original Bill that had been approved by the Assembly's Budget Committee in Mombasa, contrary to Section 131 of the PFMA and Regulation 37 (1) of the Public Finance Management Regulations of 2015.
MCAs had approved a county budget of Ksh35.5 billion where the Nairobi Metropolitan Services was to get Ksh27.1 billion, the Ward Development Fund was allocated Ksh1.3billion, Ksh30 million was for current expenditure while Ksh1.3 million was earmarked for development.
The Nairobi County Assembly's budget committee chairman Robert Mbatia had stated that NMS got the bigger share so as to ensure that all projects would be completed in good time.
“Under development, we have transferred in totality the Ward Development Fund component from the Office of the Governor to Public Works, which is now under the Nairobi Metropolitan Services,” Mbatia stated.
“On WDF, we request the office be relocated because it is a fund and its budget and allocation are under Public Works,” he added.
Back in April 2020, the governor declined to assent to a bill allocating more than Sh15 billion to the NMS.
Sonko referred Nairobi County Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2020 back to the assembly, saying amendments in it contravened provisions of the law.
The standoff would come to an end in June 2020 when Sonko finally assented to the bill.
