We share market cash with Mungiki, says official

Revenue from Korogocho market is shared between the county government and the outlawed Mungiki sect, an official has said.

Markets director Fredrick Ndunyi says Mungiki members are extorting county revenue collectors thus frustrating the county officers and traders and hurting county revenue targets.

Ndunyi spoke last Thursday when he appeared before the county assembly Trade committee. 

But Trade committee chairman Charles Thuo rubbished the claims by Ndunyi, saying those are tactics applied by market officials at City Hall to pocket public funds and avoid questioning of the amount collected by revenue officers.

"I do business in Korogocho and have not seen or heard of any Mungiki member . This is just an allegation meant for people to steal money from the government. We are dealing with al Shabaab; we cannot be intimidated by Mungiki. This is a pure lie,’’ Thuo told the Star yesterday.

Ndunyi said sect members threaten revenue officers at the market demanding a share of the revenue.

‘‘Our officers are very insecure and, yes, we share revenue with this militia group that has deployed scaring mechanisms to intimidate our officers who in turn fall into their trap,” he said.

The national government banned the gang in 2002 after knife-wielding members killed more than 20 people in a clash with a rival gang in Nairobi’s Mathare slum, a Mungiki stronghold.

To address the issue, Ndunyi said he is planning to involve the county Inspectorate Department and other officers to ensure that such groups are dealt with.

‘‘We have to liaise with Inspectorate team and as from next week, we will have joint operations to ensure we collect revenue fully in those markets’’ he said.

Last month, it was revealed that City Hall was losing over Sh400,000 million in revenue from over 100 markets.

The county is only able to collect revenue from 43 main markets, raising concerns about weak reinforcement from the revenue team.

Market revenue has not been meeting its targets in the past financial years despite allocation of substantial amounts in budgets.

In the last financial year ( 2017-18 ), total revenue collected from markets was Sh253.8 million.

As of December 31, 2018, the county had collected Sh146. 2 million.