• On Monday NMS accused Sonko’s administration of withholding Sh253 million meant for health facilities across the city. NMS is in charge of health.
• Sonko alleged NMS is paying salaries to ghost workers, a culture he managed to eliminate since he assumed office.
Image: COURTESY
A fresh war of words has erupted between Governor Mike Sonko and Nairobi Metropolitan Services director general Mohamed Badi.
On Monday, the NMS accused Sonko’s administration of withholding Sh253 million meant to benefit health facilities across the city.
Badi told the Senate Health Committee that City Hall has refused to surrender Sh127 million held in a Special Purpose Account at the Central Bank.
NMS Health Services director Josephine Kibaru-Mbae told the committee chaired by Trans Nzoia Senator Michael Mbito that Sonko’s administration has not submitted staff payroll and ongoing contracts for health projects it took over from the county to facilitate payments.
But on Tuesday, Sonko hit back at NMS, dismissing claims that an incident in which a woman gave birth two weeks ago outside the gate of Pumwani Maternity Hospital was due to failure by City Hall to allow NMS access to the county payroll.
Sonko, who has been on a warpath with Badi, alleged NMS was paying salaries to ghost workers “a culture he had managed to eliminate since he assumed office.”
The governor said the Nairobi County Public Service Board remains the only employer of all the seconded staff “and nothing stops the seconded staff from executing their duties as per the contracts of employment.”
“It is indeed unfortunate that the NMS has resorted to providing the public with petty excuses to cover up for their gross incompetence and ineptitude since they assumed delegated responsibility over four transferred functions,” Sonko said in a statement to the media.
He added, “I find it strange and ridiculous that they have been throwing around funny figures to entertain the public, while creating the impression that I have 'refused' to fund the NMS.”
Sonko said there is no law that obligates him to finance NMS, which is domiciled in the Office of the President. He told Badi to stop “cheap blackmail”.
“It will not solve the legal challenges before us, and trying to paint my administration as failed will not cure their incompetence. If anything, it is now more that six months since they came into existence, and apart from a few coloured pavements in the City Centre, whose contracts were awarded by my administration even before they existed, they have nothing else to show,” he said.
He said some of the misfits that his administration had eliminated before NMS took over the running of the city are slowly coming back.
He cited piling garbage in city estates and lethargy in service delivery, saying the Pumwani incident is a classic example of how things are heading in the wrong direction.
Sonko also noted that his administration is not aware of the bank accounts NMS operates, who the signatories are, where their funding comes from, and how they account for such monies.
“The question is, is the Nairobi City County Government supposed to wire money to Major Badi's personal accounts or his M- Pesa? And which law allows that?” he posed.
“My administration is under pressure from the Auditor General and the Ministry of Health to account for the over 294 million shillings that was allocated to Nairobi to fight the Covid- 19 pandemic, and wired directly by the National Treasury to NMS in complete contravention of the law. NMS has refused to account for these monies, yet they purport to be unable to perform their functions 'due to lack of funds.'”
The governor said City Hall paid over Sh120 million to health workers in July as was directed by President Uhuru Kenyatta. He said the money was meant to “motivate those on the frontline in battling the Covid-19 pandemic”.
“Therefore, the issue of lack of support and cooperation from my administration does not arise...Given the foregoing, it is now clear that the NMS is emerging as the new face of cartels in Nairobi," he said.
"It is determined to not only restore ghost workers into the county payroll, but also pay ghost suppliers in the pending bills that I reduced from 64 billion shillings to 11 Billion shillings,” Sonko added.
He said his government retains responsibility over the transferred functions and asked NMS to desist from sideshows and blame games and instead focus on delivering on their mandate within the law.
Edited by EKibii