Governor Sakaja addresses Auditor General's concerns over Nairobi Pay revenue system

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has responded to recent concerns raised by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu regarding revenue collection system Nairobi Pay, which she flagged last week for its lack of clarity in operations.

Gathungu had pointed out that the Nairobi County government lacked a valid contract with the system's vendor and did not establish a service level agreement (SLA) defining the terms of support for it.

Speaking on Citizen TV's ‘The Explainer Show’ on Tuesday, Sakaja provided insights into the system's background, highlighting that Nairobi Pay was not the product of an external vendor but was developed internally by government entities.

"Nairobi Pay was a system set up during the period when the national government had transferred functions, the NMS running the county then. President Uhuru Kenyatta together with the Joint National Mapping (JNAM) developed a system for revenue collection," he said.

"We looked at the system, it looked robust. At the time, the responsibility to collect revenue had been transferred to KRA. When we transferred it, KRA did not have a system, so as a national government we developed the system. There is no company called Nairobi Pay.”

He added that the distinction is crucial as it underscores Nairobi Pay as a government initiative rather than a contracted service from an external company, hence no need for the service level agreement mentioned by Githungu.

"When every Governor takes office, they encounter numerous vendors offering their systems with pricing proposals, but I said No. Let's examine the existing system's effectiveness and potential to better serve Nairobi," he said.

"So after reviewing all the systems, we said why don't we strengthen this system that has been worked on using heavy government resources and they had no need of a contract with themselves because it was national government. The national government cannot have a contract with itself. They can create a team to develop that system."

Nairobi County, in collaboration with the now-defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), launched the Ksh.160 million system to enhance accountability, raise revenue collection, and curb corruption across the devolved unit.