• Sonko said the budget is to cater for emergencies including fires
• He said the Sh96 million is yet to be spent
Image: COURTESY
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has defended his Sh96 million confidential budget, saying it's not for his personal spending but rather operation expenses.
“This money is there for emergency. Like recently we had the Toi Market fire, part of that money went to the traders whose structures were completely razed by the fire,” Sonko said on Monday.
“The Governor and the Deputy Governor’s Office is big and has five other departments. We have inspectorate, legal department... When ambassadors come to my office, I need to serve them tea with sugar. I cannot be using money from my pocket,” he added.
The Office of the Governor and the Deputy Governor has five departments: Legal services, Fire disaster and management, Inspectorate, Investigative services and administrative
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has defended his Sh96 million confidential budget, saying it's not for his personal spending but rather operation expenses. See story https://bit.ly/2CPnvWO
Speaking on Monday afternoon, the county boss further said that the name 'confidence' was being misused.
In the this financial year 2018-19, the office of the Governor has been allocated Sh4.4 billion and so far, Sh 2.2 billion has been spent.
“Everything I spent I spend it at capacity as the Governor of Nairobi and I can account for it with receipts. Why should I make that budget confidential. That is misleading. Whoever is trying to implicate me in those funny cases, that is nonsense of the highest order,” Sonko said.
He further said that the Sh96 million hasn’t been spent and he doesn’t see why he should be allocated more money for the “personal kitty’.
The county’s fleet manager Dominic Odera had said that by law, the governor is entitled to five cars only.
However, he said that Sonko had drawn some additional cars from other sectors to give him a convoy of at least 12 cars.
Sonko responded and said that his personal cars should not be an issue because he has always moved around with a convoy, even when he was a Senator and an MP.
The query on the confidential budget is set to be debated at the county assembly today.