The Nairobi County Assembly at a past sitting.
When City Hall quietly asked the County Assembly to approve a loan to pay salaries and settle recurrent bills on Wednesday, it was presented as a routine financial bridge for a county government that has been struggling to pay contractors and salaries of its staff for months.
But the request has raised alarm among ward representatives allied to Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja and those on the minority side.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja at his office in Nairobi.
During a plenary session on Wednesday, the county government, through the Majority Leader Peter Imwatok, failed to explain even the most basic details when pressed by a section of MCAs: How much money? From whom? On what terms?
The special motion requested permission from the County Assembly to borrow the loan of an unspecified amount.
“Pursuant to Section 142 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012, I beg to lay the following paper on the table of this County Assembly. This is a request for authority from Nairobi City County Assembly to borrow a short-term loan to settle salary and salary-related expenditure by Nairobi City County Executive,” a statement from the Majority Leader read.
Omitted critical areas
However, the MCAs wanted to know why the governor omitted critical areas in the motion, including the specific amounts needed, when it would repay the loan and which bank it was considering borrowing from.
Ngara Ward MCA Chege Mwaura argued that the Executive was attempting to misuse the powers of the assembly by forwarding a statement that was short of content.
“We don’t have the content in the statement. What are we passing? What is the exact amount that they want to borrow? What are the terms? We do not want to be reduced to conveyor belts,” Mr Mwaura said.
Waithaka MCA Anthony Kiragu, who is the Nairobi County Assembly minority leader.
Minority Leader Anthony Kiragu cautioned the City County Assembly against being used by the Executive to achieve its agenda without asking important questions.
“I request that you protect this House from bombardment with useless papers that do not follow the law. It is important that Finance Executive Charles Kerich attach it with a nexus before bringing it to this House,” Mr Kiragu said.
The Speaker said it was up to the MCAs to grant or deny the governor’s request until the grey areas had been fully addressed.
Former planning PS Irungu Nyakera also opposed the move by the governor, insisting that the request should have been rejected by the MCAs.
“The governor was asking for a blank cheque. This is how Nairobi has been piling up debts and pending bills. Zero governance, zero oversight and a system that keeps enabling reckless decisions at the expense of Nairobians,” he said.
The opacity surrounding the loan came at a time City Hall had just made an abrupt switch of its primary accounts to Sidian Bank, a move that stirred uproar among MCAs and finance insiders who questioned the rationale and timing.
There are also concerns from the County Government Workers Union about repeated delays to salaries and statutory deductions, which they say have caused them distress. The most recent example was the October salary, which was received on November 18.
This is despite Mr Sakaja’s promise that county government workers would not experience salary delays during his tenure.
Although the county acted in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act 2012, which permits county government entities to borrow funds with the approval of the Member of the County Executive Committee responsible for finance, the MCAs asked the governor why he had chosen not to disclose the amount of money the county intended to borrow.
“Don’t pass the blame game. You need to underline the word request for authority. The papers have been laid, and stand committed to the Budget and Appropriation Committee to do a report on behalf of these members of the House. We expect nothing short of a comprehensive interrogation of the requirement in line with the status and articles of the constitution,” Assembly Speaker Kennedy Ng’ondi said, quelling the members.
“My work as the Speaker is to convey the message, which I have done and also to guide members.”
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