The term of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services should not be extended beyond its two-year limit, senators now say.
However, should the Executive and the city county opt to extend the deed of transfer, then it should not go beyond the August 9 2022 general election.
Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang said if the reasons for that transfer were pegged on former governor Mike Sonko’s alleged incompetence, the contract should not affect the next administration.
“I think it is very important to avoid some mischief where entities like NMS are established and they stay forever,” Kajwang said.
“They then serve to take away certain constitutional provisions through the backdoor."
Kajwang chairs the Senate Committe on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations that deals with challenges facing counties and their governments.
“Assuming that a deed of transfer lapses, what happens to the assets and liabilities that have accrued during that period where functions have been transferred?”
He said NMS has put up massive infrastructure in the city, among them hospitals, roads and water projects.
Kajwang said stock-taking will determine whether the entity could also be accruing liabilities.
“I think NMS has acquired many assets. It must be clear that those assets belong to Nairobi county and not the national government. Liabilities could be payments for salaries, statutory contributions and such like things,” he said.
Kajwang said the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee is the nexus between the national and county government, and should therefore audit NMS assets at the end of its term.
However, he said that since establishment of IGRTC, the entity has not delivered to the level that the country had expected it to.
The deed of transfer of functions to NMS is expected to expire in March next year, and it can only be extended by a substantive office holder with the backing of the county assembly.
The deed of transfer was signed on February 25, 2020, by then governor Sonko and then Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, with the blessings of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The deed operationalised NMS for a period of 24 months.
Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja said that acting governor Ann Kananu was being arm twisted before being sworn in as substantive governor to extend the transfer of deed past next year’s polls.
“That is unconstitutional. There is the fear of who comes after NMS. There is the assumption that county governments have devils and the national government has angels,” Sakaja said.
“Even in the NMS, we have seen areas where cartel behaviour has begun. That is why I will still insist on accountability."
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court dismissed former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko’s case seeking to block the swearing-in of Anne Kananu as his successor.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
