Nairobi City County’s internal revenues for the six months to December hit a record low after it shrunk by 28 percent to Sh2.7 billion, shining the spotlight on a decision to claw back revenue collection duties from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
Official data from the budget controller shows that City Hall’s internal revenue fell by Sh1.078 billion to Sh2.733 billion, undermining efforts to boost own-source revenue.
The drop came in the period that the new administration took back collection of taxes and levies from the KRA in August last year after Johnson Sakaja was sworn in as the governor.
This is the lowest that City Hall has collected in the first half of a financial year since the start of devolution a decade ago with the closest to this level being Sh3.105 billion netted in the six months to December 2017.
That 1 billion is in someone’s pocket and this was not accidental. The hurry to remove KRA from collecting levies was premature but also planned to enable looting on a large scale. How ironic is it that the Finance Committee doesn’t know what bank accounts are owned by the Nairobi government . What fees are not being captured or what is being collected and not transmitted? Sakaja is a pawn in a big game …Nairobi will remain shitty.
I’m surprised Nairobi County revenues are declining while main income stream- property rates increased substantially. Either enforcement is poor or nairobians are unable to pay as a result of tough economy
