Cash fuels Governor Sonko, NMS supremacy tiff
Beleaguered Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko and the Director General of the Nairobi Metropolitan Service, Mohamed Badi, are at war, this time over the collection of county revenue running into billions of shillings,
While NMS is rolling out a new revenue collection system to streamline cash collection, governor Sonko is pushing for the continued use of an old system to make payments even for services he surrendered in March.
The war escalated yesterday when Sonko, who was forced out of office due to corruption charges, published an announcement in one of the local dailies asking Nairobians to use the *235# USSD code to make their payments for various services including rates and parking.
“Stay safe, go digital. Make Nairobi County Government payments from the comfort of your home and stay safe from Covid-19.
For parking and rates make payments through USSD code *235#,” read the advert bearing the logo of the “Nairobi City County office of the governor.”
Alternatively, the governor asked City Hall service seekers to use a paybill number 367776.
Sonko has also instructed Nairobians to pay the rates and parking payments using the *235# code which has been sending the cash to National Bank of Kenya.
The advert came just a day after NMS made a public announcement asking Nairobians seeking services to make payments using the *647# short code.
In the advertisement published a week ago, NMS asked residents seeking to pay for property management, land rates, market fees and parking fees to use the new code.
Yesterday, NMS through its spokesperson Major Albert Musoma appeared to be shocked that the governor had decided to instruct citizens to pay for functions under NMS to a parallel system and promised to revert after gathering more information on the subject.
Sonko, who has been grappling with claims of running a corrupt administration that has been milking the county Treasury dry, was forced to surrender the management of health, transport, public works, utilities and ancillary services and planning and development effective March 25.
The other key function is collection of revenue which is under the Finance and Economic Planning docket and which is often blamed over loss of cash, and though the function remained under the county, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is set to take-over of the function.
A Special Gazette Notice detailing how the transfer will be executed, shows that KRA will be the principal revenue collector in the Capital City, taking charge of parking fees, business licences, land lease fees and buildings’ approval charges.
Different demographics
Early July, the taxman announced an intended roll out in phases, a new revenue collection system dubbed Nairobi County Revenue System (NRS), for all key revenue streams in Nairobi.
KRA said the system would incorporate features such as integrated customer touch points including USSD, mobile app and web portal offer online services and simplified customer interfaces to cater for different demographics.
It will also have an in-built payment system that enables a customer to make payments on the system through various payment methods including mobile money, cards and bank transfers.
The system had been under development by an in-house development team at KRA since March and will replace the use of Local Authority Integrated Financial Operations Management System (Laifoms) for revenue collection at the county.
Sonko has been engaging in a supremacy battle with NMS and in April he denied it finances by rejecting a supplementary budget approved by the County Assembly in a move seen as a calculated plot to frustrate its operations at the county.
