- The letters were addressed individually to the officials by the County Assembly Clerk Edward Gichana as seen by the Star.
- The officials are expected to shed more light on the nature, ownership and operations of the Nairobi Revenue System before the ad-hoc committee led by Majority Leader Peter Imwatok.
Image: Photogrid
After 16 months since its exit, top officials who served at the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Service are set to step foot at City Hall.
This is after a Nairobi County Assembly Committee ad-hoc committee probing the decline of Nairobi's revenue invited the officials for a meeting.
Former NMS Director General lieutenant general (rtd) Mohammed Badi and former State House controller Kinuthia Mbugua are among those invited to the sitting set to take place on Tuesday.
Others are Constance Mwaikamba - Former Head of Treasury, Major John Njoroge - seconded officer at NMS and NMS deputy director general Kang'ethe Thuku.
The letters were addressed individually to the officials by the County Assembly Clerk Edward Gichana as seen by the Star.
"This is to inform you of the Committee's resolution and to request that you attend the said meeting on January 30, 2024, at 10.30 am at the Assembly Plenary Chamber, Ground floor, County Assembly wing, City Hall Building," reads the letters.
The officials are expected to shed more light on the nature, ownership and operations of the Nairobi Revenue System (NRS) before the ad-hoc committee led by Majority Leader Peter Imwatok.
"You are expected to clarify whether the system had any agreement with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) or NMS and whether the same was communicated to Nairobi City County Government (NCCG)," reads the letter in part.
Also, they are expected to give details of the administrators, hosts, and all persons who had access to the said system during the NMS period.
The invited officials will also enlighten the committee on whether NMS received an up-to-date reconciliation of all revenues collected through the Nairobi Revenue System and if yes, whether they could share the same with the MCA.
Also, the officials are expected to answer any other matter related to the Committee's inquiry.
The county assembly, under Standing Order 211 of the Nairobi City County Assembly Standing Orders on November 1, 2023, adopted a motion for the establishment of an ad-hoc committee on inquiry into Nairobi's revenue collection systems and administration.
The objective of the inquiry was to investigate, advise and make recommendations to the county government on the overall revenue performance of the county including the revenue collection systems, history of revenue performance, revenue collection sources, collection hitches, accountability levels, and actual receipts versus targets among others.
Following the numerous sessions, the committee has held with KRA officials and county finance officials, the MCAs were informed that the revenue collection system that KRA relied on to collect revenue on behalf during the Deed of Transfer of functions period, was developed through a joint multiagency team comprising of officials from KRA, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of ICT and the defunct NMS.
However, both officials from City Hall and KRA claim not to be aware of the administrators, hosts and physical location of the system during and after the lapse of the Deed of Transfer of Functions.
The KRA officials also revealed that NMS was the overall responsible entity for coordinating the transferred functions including revenue collection
Further, the Committee was informed that after the lapse of the Deed of Transfer of Functions, the NRS continues to be relied on by the current County Government.
The signing of the deed of transfer on February 25, 2020, left City Hall in control of less influential departments.
They include ICT and e-government, education and sports, agriculture and livestock, trade and co-operatives, devolution, environment and finance sectors.
As a result, Former President Uhuru Kenyatta on March 17, 2020, established the NMS and appointed LtBadi as its director general
The deed of transfer gave NMS the mandate to carry out the functions for 24 months, renewable from the date of establishment.
However, in March 2022, the NMS tenure was extended to August 9 and another three months were added to allow for transition once a governor is elected.
In a Gazette Notice on March 6, 2020, KRA was appointed as the principal agent for the overall collection of all Nairobi County Revenue.
The authority was involved in the collection of revenue on behalf of NCCG from March 16, 2020, to September 15, 2022, as per the deed of transfer.