“When you need to make an impression, don’t settle for anything less. This are details that emerged according to revelations made when the Legal and Justice Committee was perusing the Sh805 million budget estimates for 2019/2020 financial year for Mr Sonko’s office and that of his deputy.
Mike Sonkos office and his deputies are allocated Sh490.6 million yet the county has had no deputy governor since January, 2018 when Polycarp Igathe resigned.
On top of that, an irregular multi-million shilling confidential budget has been continuously and been secretly allocated to the Nairobi Governor’s office.
Only government units like State House, Foreign Affairs and the Interior ministry have secret accounts used for unbudgeted spending needed for state interest.
The committee, led by its chairperson Jayendra Malde put to task Mr Dominic Odera — an administration officer in Mr Sonko’s office and who also serves as the county’s fleet manager — to account for the huge sum.
However, Mr Dominic Odera – an administration officer in Mr Sonko’s office, failed to provide approval letters for the multi-million shilling secret budget.
In his defense, however, Governor Sonko on Monday claimed the money is meant for operation expenses, this despite the existence of a hospitality budget specifically for the county governor’s office.
“The name confidential is being misused in this case. It is supposed to be ‘operation.’ The governor’s office is big… legal is under me, security, there is a lot of terrorism threats in Nairobi we need to get information… When ambassadors come to my office, I need to be buying tea for them. I cannot be using money from my pocket throughout,” said Sonko.
So @MikeSonko is stealing our 96 million for tea and biscuits, takes a small portion of the loot and runs to Turkana and pretends to be doing charity!!! Kenya issa scam!— Nthalamy (@Amina_bellisimo) April 1, 2019
In the Controller of Budget report, the office of the governor and deputy governor of Nairobi, have been allocated Ksh.4.4 billion in the current financial year. The questionable confidential expenditure is not included while the office of the deputy governor still remains vacant.
“The governor, by law, is entitled to only five cars but some of the additional cars are drawn from other sectors. Since the governor is the overall authority, the officers cannot restrict him and we have to fuel all the 12 vehicles plus those that escort him,” said Mr Odera when pitching for a Sh180 million fuels budget.