Babu Owino calls for Sakaja’s impeachment
Babu Owino calls for Sakaja’s impeachment
A tumultuous response has been caused by Nairobi County Governor Johnson Sakaja’s impeachment, which Nairobi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino has called for on the grounds of serious misconduct and financial mismanagement.
Babu’s demand follows closely on the heels of a damning audit report that the office of the Auditor General released, detailing financial irregularities in the county.
Speaking to the media on Friday, April 5, Babu brought up a number of alarming conclusions from the audit report for the fiscal year that ends in June 2023.
Significant irregularities in asset acquisition, ghost staff, outstanding invoices, dubious bank accounts, and unreported payments totaling billions of shillings were among the discoveries.
Just one day earlier, Governor Sakaja had presented a positive vision of Nairobi’s future in his State of the County address. He envisioned a city full of opportunity, order, dignity, and optimism. Sakaja said, “We have lived up to that standard,” alluding to the elimination of nepotism and corruption.
The report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, however, presents a different picture.
It exposes excessive spending, questionable payments, and questionable asset acquisition during Governor Sakaja’s tenure. The audit found that 26 county employees had received Ksh17 million in irregular payments, including basic pay, rental income, home supplements, and service gratuity.
The investigation also revealed instances in which employees were receiving net salaries that were less than one-third of their basic pay, in violation of human resource regulations that had been set down, and the failure to deduct PAYE from the wages of 393 officers as required by law.
The Disability Act of 2003 was broken, with only 167 out of 13,354 county employees classified as persons with disabilities—well below the recommended minimum of 5%—among the most shocking disclosures.
The Nairobi County Executive’s financial statements were deemed unsatisfactory by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in her report, which said the financial statements did not fairly depict the county’s financial situation as of June 30, 2023.
“In Nairobi County, there is severe financial theft. “There is grave misrepresentation of funds and serious deception of the hard-earned money of Nairobians,” bemoaned Babu Owino.
Inaccuracies in pending accounts and payables, disparities in financial statements, and unsupported utilities, supplies, and services were also discovered throughout the audit. Furthermore, Governor Sakaja has come under fire for neglecting to appear before the Senate Public Accounts and Investment Committee to respond to the Auditor General’s inquiries.
Members of the County Assembly have been encouraged by Babu Owino to act decisively in order to protect public finances and guarantee accountability in Nairobi County.
