•Kerich further said that only a few individuals in the finance sector and ICT have Viewership rights of the Nairobi Revenue System
•The finance boss further revealed that from their end as city hall, they currently do not know the location of the system servers
It has been revealed that the Kenya Revenue Authority is still in charge of the revenue collection at Nairobi City County.
This is despite the current administration coming into power last year, August.
Nairobi Finance executive Charles Kerich on Monday said that despite the transition process between the then Nairobi Metropolitan Service and City Hall coming to an end in November last year, the revenue system has never been handed back to the county and they are still in the transfer process.
Kerich further said that only a few individuals in the finance sector and ICT have viewership rights of the Nairobi Revenue System and they follow to see the revenue being collected in the day.
“The system is yet to be transferred to the county. We were only given the viewership rights and we are able to check the revenue being collected,” Kerich said.
The finance boss further revealed that from their end as city hall, they currently do not know the location of the system servers.
“We do not know the physical location though and as it has been stated, the process of transfer is yet to begin,” Kerich revealed.
He was speaking during a committee meeting between the ICT committee and the Nairobi ICT and Finance and economic sectors.
It was further revealed that for 50 per cent payday, the NRS is always down hence it cannot be accurate on the amount that the county collects and they were unable to meet the targets of December-March.
The National Payment System Act states that for the personalisation to be in place, they need to be licenced by the Central bank of Kenya and in partnership with at least ten banks.
This is contrary to the happenings at the Nairobi Revenue Services which has raised an alarm of someone looting the revenue of the county.
Nairobi Revenue System costing Sh160 million was launched in January 2021 by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Nairobi county government.
KRA was mandated to collect the county’s revenue when NMS was instituted.
However, since NMS tenure came to an end, the Collection of revenue was to be transferred back to the county.
Early this year, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja announced that Nairobi residents could access county services using the newly launched Nairobi Pay.
The new electronic system is already working and registration is ongoing.
Sakaja told the Star the new system is effective, easy to use and will easily be accessible to all.
NRS and Nairobi pay systems are different as all the 140 and above county services are now accessible at the new Nairobi Pay.
“There is little difference between the two. What we have done with Nairobi Pay is streamlining all our services to be on the Nairobi E-Service (NairobiPay) portal,” Sakaja said.
Residents who had already registered under the NRS do not need to register again, however, those who do not have an account need to register in the online portal.
"It is now easy to make payment for services in Nairobi city county using Nairobi E-Services (Nairobi Pay) portal. Visit the portal nairobiservices.go.ke and follow the steps,” Sakaja said.
However, the revelations made by the county are shocking as it reveals that KRA is still in control of the county’s revenue.
This raised concerns from MCAs led by Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai.
"It's very dangerous that up to now no one knows the physical location of the NRS system and only a few individuals at the county have viewership rights. No one knows the bank accounts are connected to it," he said.
"Nobody knows who has the user or the admin rights. That is a very dangerous way to operate a government system."
The Nairobi county assembly ICT committee has recommended that the Nairobi Revenue System should be handed back to the county.
The committee said it was necessary and also legal that city hall has control and see what they have been collecting as revenue and plan accordingly.
"This could be a very big scandal coming if it does not care off quickly at the moment," Alai stated.