This archive report was first published on 3 December 2019.
On December 3, 2019, Nairobi County announced plans to sue Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Patrick Njoroge and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) boss James Mburu over Sh4.49 billion withheld from the county's recurrent expenditure account.
The county claims that the taxman disobeyed court orders obtained by the county, stopping KRA from enforcing agency notes when the amount was withdrawn. Initially, agency notices were issued on December 6, 2016, and fresh ones on April 12, 2019.
According to Cecil Miller, the county's advocate, the enforcement by KRA was calculated to cause economic sabotage and blackmail the county government into giving in to KRA's demand. The withdrawal of the money was also in violation of the Public Finance Management Act, as the county exchequer was withdrawn without approval from the controller of budget.
The county administration says that officials have yet to be paid since the county is unable to meet any of its recurrent expenditures and service deliveries. This comes as counties face a financial crisis that could cripple their operations after the tenure of the acting Controller of Budget Stephen Masha ended before releasing funds to the devolved units.
