•Acting County Secretary Patrick Analo justified the choice of these nine KRA officials by highlighting their capabilities and experience gained during the NMS tenure.
•County Executive for Finance Charles Kerich stated that a Memorandum of Understanding.
Image: LEAH MUKANGAI
The Adhoc Committee on the Decline of Revenue in Nairobi County has raised concerns regarding the secondment of nine officials from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to City Hall.
The officials in question are Anastacia Wanjiku Githuba, Sylvester Okello, Leonard Otieno, Andrew Wamae, James Kumba, John Muhunyo, George Thuo, Francis Oluoch, and Benard Ngugi.
The move follows a request by Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja in a letter dated January 4, 2023.
The governor sought the secondment for two years, with the possibility of renewal, to assist in the transition after the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) tenure ended on September 5, 2022.
He noted the officers' familiarity with the Nairobi Revenue System (NRS), which was still in use as the capital's revenue system.
Image: LEAH MUKANGAI
The governor's letter, addressed to then KRA Commissioner Githi Mburu, outlined the roles of the officers in knowledge transfer, management of the integrated county management system (Nairobi Pay), and coordination of county revenue administration and policy reforms.
"Following the expiry of KRA as the principal collector of Nairobi City County on September 5, 2022, the officers have been identified to help continue offering knowledge transfer to Nairobi in the development, rollout and management of the integrated county management system(Nairobi Pay), coordination of county revenue administration, collection and operations, policy and legislative reforms in revenue administration and collection,” the letter reads.
The committee, led by Majority Leader Peter Imwatok, questioned why Governor Sakaja opted for KRA officials without seeking the assembly's approval.
Former Mayor and Baba Dogo MCA Geoffrey Majiwa likened this move to an unofficial extension of the Deed of Transfer, calling it an illegality as no formal extension was presented to the assembly.
“That was an illegality. There was no extension brought to this assembly by the Governor. A letter with a signature cannot be purported to give KRA the leeway to extend their star after the end of the Nairobi Metropolitan Service tenure,” he said.
Image: LEAH MUKANGAI
Defending their presence at City Hall, Annastacia Githuba, Deputy Commissioner of the County Revenue Division, and legal adviser Sylvester Okello explained that their secondment was approved by the KRA board following the governor's request.
“The letter by the Governor was a request and KRA accepted. We moved after KRA did a letter approving the secondment,” Okello said.
Acting County Secretary Patrick Analo justified the choice of these nine KRA officials by highlighting their capabilities and experience gained during the NMS tenure.
“These people used to work during the NMS tenure and he might have gone through the qualifications and settled on them,” Analo explained.
This explanation came in response to Dandora II MCA Silas Matara's inquiry about the rationale behind their selection.
Throwing a hard pressing question to both Kenya Revenue Authority and Executive officials, Imwatok questioned whether the two institutions had a framework to guide their new engagements.
Both the County Secretary Analo and KRA legal adviser Okello confessed to having no existing framework.
Okello revealed that KRA had come up with a proposed framework which was forwarded to the County government for approval.
“The framework needed further consultation therefore at the moment we are operating without a framework,” he added.
However, County Executive for Finance Charles Kerich stated that a Memorandum of Understanding will soon be put in place for them to work with the national collector as per the letter by Governor Sakaja.
Going further, when the KRA officers were questioned on where they draw their salary, it was revealed that it was not being paid by City Hall.
CEC for Finance Kerich explained that no payment could be done without a framework.
“Upto date we have not processed any payment because we have no legally binding document to make us pay them,” he said.
Image: LEAH MUKANGAI
No access to servers
The MCAs were still puzzled how no officer from the County executive or KRA has access to the Nairobi Revenue System servers upto date.
Anastacia before NMS's exit was the head of revenue and she also didn't have access to the Nairobi Revenue System despite acknowledging the system worked best.
“ I only had access to the dashboard and that’s how I would hold revenue officers accountable when NMS was in existence. But I have no access to the server, don’t know where it is located nor its colour,” she said.
As the Finance boss, CEC Kerich also said he only had access to the dashboard which enables him to only view how the revenue is streaming in.
To that effect, Kilelshwa MCA Robert Alai questioned whether post NMS the revenue system has been audited.
“Was an audit of the system done?” he posed.
Acting County Attorney Christine Ireri said that the county’s internal audit can conduct the exercise. “ We have an internal audit at the county and they can be mandated to do such an audit,” she answered.
KRA’s legal adviser Okello and CEC Kerich also said they were not aware of any audit done on the revenue system.
“To the best of my knowledge, the system has not been audited,” Kerich said
“The system has not been audited and that’s a problem. But the county can request the Auditor General to do the audit."