Kenya Insights

Tag: Governor Johnson Sakaja

  • Investigations Reveal The Depth Of Rot In City Hall’s Garbage Collection Tender To Corrupt Ghanaian Firm

    Investigations Reveal The Depth Of Rot In City Hall’s Garbage Collection Tender To Corrupt Ghanaian Firm

    At 5.05 on the morning of Monday, February 16, 2026, a technical delegation from City Hall was scheduled to board a Kenya Airways flight at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, bound for Accra.

    Their mission, conducted in conditions of unusual secrecy, was framed as a due diligence exercise: to inspect the facilities of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a waste management company to which Nairobi County Government had, six days earlier, awarded a multibillion-shilling, twenty-year contract.

    The chairman of the tender evaluation committee, Engineer Charles Ngugi Gathara, never made it onto that plane. He collapsed at the airport after suffering a sudden illness and was pronounced dead. His colleagues departed without him.

    That a man died while preparing to perform due diligence on a deal that had already been awarded ought, under any functioning procurement regime, to have been the least of the questions raised by the City Hall-Zoomlion transaction.

    It was not. The Zoomlion contract, formally designated Tender No. NCC/ENV/RFP/109/2025-2026, is now the subject of a High Court conservatory order, a damning internal technical review, a separate Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission inquiry in Mombasa, and a chorus of civil society outrage that has drawn comparisons to Ghana’s own long experience of being looted by the very company Nairobi has now embraced.

    Investigations by Kenya Insights, drawing on court filings, procurement documents, internal government communications, international debarment records and multiple sources within City Hall and the National Treasury, reveal a procurement so fundamentally compromised that it calls into question not merely the contract itself but the integrity of every institution that permitted it to proceed.

    THE DEAL IN PLAIN TERMS

    The contract grants Zoomlion Ghana Limited exclusive rights to design, construct, operate, maintain and eventually transfer an integrated solid waste management system for Nairobi City County.

    The scope encompasses waste collection and haulage across the capital, control of the 76-acre Dandora dumpsite, sorting, recycling and disposal infrastructure, and the construction of a waste-to-energy facility that the national government has projected could generate electricity and produce fertiliser by 2027.

    The tenure is twenty years, a period that will outlast at least three gubernatorial terms and bind administrations not yet elected to a contract whose full financial terms have not been made public.

    The notification of award was issued in United States dollars, an irregularity that raised immediate concern among Treasury officials who reviewed the agreement.

    No dedicated funding mechanism, no escrow arrangement, no defined management fee schedule, and no guaranteed minimum waste supply commitment appear in the contract as reviewed by City Hall’s own technical team.

    That team characterised the document as providing Zoomlion with what amounted to a blank cheque drawn on the public of Nairobi.

    “Several commercial and financial safeguards require strengthening. The absence of provisions addressing ISPO arrangements, escrow mechanisms, clearly defined management fee schedules, guaranteed minimum waste supply and dedicated funding sources may expose the project to operational and financial risks.” — City Hall Technical Review

    Zoomlion Waste Services Limited, the Kenyan vehicle for the deal, was incorporated on August 23, 2025 with Zoomlion Ghana Limited listed as the sole shareholder and two Ghanaian nationals, Said Haidar and Joseph Kwame Siaw Agyepong, listed as directors.

    A single Kenyan, Mombasa lawyer Heeral Vishal Soni, appears as a director without shares.

    The incorporation of the local entity preceded the advertising of the tender by nearly four months, a sequence that procurement specialists say is consistent with a tender designed around a pre-selected beneficiary.

    THE SOLE BIDDER PROBLEM

    The tender was advertised on December 18, 2025, on the City Hall website and the Public Procurement Information Portal. Bids closed and were opened on January 8, 2026. Zoomlion Ghana Limited was the only entity to submit a response.

    In a project of this scale, complexity and duration, involving the primary waste infrastructure of a capital city of more than six million people, a single bid is not a market outcome.

    It is an administrative outcome: the product of deliberate choices about how a tender is structured, priced, timed and classified.

    A senior official in the National Treasury reviewed the tender documents and told Kenya Insights that the procurement was misconceived from inception.

    The project, by virtue of its financing, construction and long-term operational components, falls squarely within the Public Private Partnership Act 2021 and should have been processed through the PPP Directorate under the National Treasury.

    Instead, it was run under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015, a choice that stripped it of the safeguards that apply to major infrastructure concessions.

    The minimum advertising period for an open international tender is 21 days; without international classification the period can be compressed in ways that effectively exclude foreign competitors who might otherwise have entered the field.

    The tender document contains a clause stating that the process is open to both local and international bidders.

    However, the document bears none of the required classification initials that legally designate a tender as either Open National Tender or Open International Tender.

    In the absence of those designations, Kenyan companies were nominally eligible while the structural conditions of the tender ensured that only a firm already positioned and incorporated in Kenya before the advertisement could realistically respond within the window available.

    Zoomlion Waste Services Limited had been in existence for exactly that purpose since August.

    A HISTORY OF BRIBERY, OVERBILLING AND SCANDAL

    The company at the centre of this arrangement is not a newcomer to controversy. Zoomlion Ghana Limited and two subsidiaries, Accra Compost Plant and Zoom Alliance, were formally debarred by the World Bank in 2013 after an investigation found that the company had paid bribes to facilitate contract execution and invoice processing on the World Bank-financed Emergency Monrovia Urban Sanitation Project in Liberia.

    The debarment barred Zoomlion and its affiliates from bidding on any World Bank-funded contracts worldwide.

    The sanction remained in force until 2015, when the company entered into a Negotiated Resolution Agreement with the Bank, acknowledged the misconduct and agreed to strengthen compliance with integrity standards.

    The company’s own tender documents for the Nairobi bid contained an eligibility requirement stating that bidders must not have been blacklisted or debarred from participating in tenders by any national or state government agencies, autonomous bodies or institutions.

    Zoomlion met that criterion only by virtue of having subsequently resolved its debarment through negotiation.

    Whether that resolution, which involved an admission of wrongdoing, satisfies the spirit of a requirement designed to exclude corrupt actors is a question that City Hall’s procurement officials have conspicuously declined to answer.

    In Ghana itself, the record is substantially worse. Beginning in 2013, investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni exposed the scale of corruption within the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency, known as GYEEDA, in what became one of the most significant procurement scandals in Ghanaian public life.

    A government ministerial committee confirmed the findings. Between 2009 and 2012, nearly 500 million dollars was spent through GYEEDA. Zoomlion and other companies within the Jospong Group were identified as primary beneficiaries.

    The committee found that Zoomlion received payments for work not done and systematically overcharged the government. As a single representative instance, the company charged the government 25 million cedis more than was warranted for providing tricycles.

    The committee recommended the discontinuation of Zoomlion’s contracts. Successive Ghanaian administrations declined to act.

    The Ghanaian Auditor-General returned to Zoomlion repeatedly in subsequent years. One report documented a waste bin contract, awarded on a sole-source basis to the Jospong Group, that was inflated by at least 130 million cedis.

    Another found that 98 million cedis had been paid to eleven Jospong-linked companies for fumigation services already covered under Zoomlion’s existing contractual obligations.

    Police investigations into the fumigation agreements were launched but produced no convictions. Under the Youth Employment Agency initiative, the arrangement that structured Zoomlion’s sweeper programme, the government paid 850 cedis per worker per month, of which only 250 cedis reached the workers themselves.

    Zoomlion retained 600 cedis per worker as a management fee, an arrangement that labour rights advocates characterised as structurally exploitative.

    Despite cabinet directives under President John Mahama’s first administration ordering the termination of Zoomlion’s sanitation contract, the company continued rendering services to the state after its contract expired in February 2013 and accumulated debts owed to it by the government in excess of 450 million cedis.

    In June 2025, President Mahama, returned to office after the 2024 elections, finally terminated the Youth Employment Agency contract with Zoomlion entirely, citing transparency concerns and the exploitative compensation structure. All payments made to Zoomlion after the original contract’s expiration were ordered into an audit.

    Jospong Group Executive Chairman Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, the controlling figure behind Zoomlion and listed as a director of Zoomlion Waste Services in Kenya, is simultaneously facing contempt proceedings in a Ghanaian High Court. In late 2025, he and three others were charged with flouting court orders after allegedly entering disputed land and directing the destruction of property belonging to Royal Bell Investment Limited and Terraform Development Limited despite the existence of a court order and a penal notice served upon them.

    The application before the Ghanaian court sought his committal to imprisonment.

    STATE HOUSE FINGERPRINTS

    The Zoomlion contract did not emerge in a vacuum within City Hall. The connection between State House and the award runs through a specific sequence of events. On August 13, 2025, President William Ruto attended the Devolution Conference in Homa Bay.

    The Jospong Group of Companies had been allocated a stand at the conference.

    President Ruto visited that stand on the opening day and publicly praised Zoomlion for its waste management technology and facilities in Ghana. Eight days later, Zoomlion Waste Services Limited was incorporated in Kenya.

    President Ruto and Sakaja in a past event.

    In a public address delivered in Nairobi on January 20, 2026, eleven days before the formal notification of award to Zoomlion, President Ruto confirmed directly that his administration was involved in the procurement process.

    He said at the time: “The national government is going to support the county government to deal with the menace of waste and garbage in Nairobi. There is procurement the county is doing; we are supporting them so that we provide a lasting solution to that challenge.”

    Sources with knowledge of the arrangement told Kenya Insights that awareness of the Zoomlion deal was confined to a small number of individuals at State House and City Hall throughout the procurement and contracting stages, with the details kept deliberately opaque.

    Governor Johnson Sakaja, for his part, has defended the contract in public primarily by speaking around it: insisting that no county functions have been ceded to the national government, invoking Section 6 of the Urban Areas and Cities Act 2019 to justify special financing arrangements for Nairobi as Kenya’s capital, and pointing to the scale of the city’s waste generation, approximately 3,000 metric tonnes daily, as justification for an ambitious intervention.

    He has not addressed the procurement irregularities identified by his own technical team, the eligibility questions arising from Zoomlion’s debarment history, or the absence of the financial safeguards that his officials found missing from the agreement.

    THE MAN WHO DIED BEFORE THE WHITEWASH

    Engineer Charles Ngugi Gathara had served for more than a decade as Deputy Director for Water and Sanitation at City Hall before being appointed to chair the Zoomlion tender evaluation committee. He was 49 years old.

    On the morning of February 16, 2026, he arrived at JKIA ahead of the flight to Accra, intending to lead a delegation that would verify, after the fact, the capacity and facilities of a company to which a contract had already been awarded. Aviation workers had gone on strike that morning, disrupting departures.

    While waiting for the situation to resolve, Gathara began vomiting and collapsed. He was pronounced dead. His colleagues, once a Kenya Airways flight eventually departed at 8.53 in the evening, flew to Accra without him and spent three days visiting Zoomlion’s operations at the company’s invitation. Engineer Gathara was buried on February 27, 2026, at his home village in Gathondo, Embu County.

    The decision to proceed with the Ghana trip without him, on the day of his death, has drawn quiet condemnation within City Hall.

    More fundamentally, the entire exercise exposed the character of what passed for due diligence in this procurement.

    An evaluation committee, headed by a Water and Sanitation official rather than a specialist in solid waste management or PPP finance, was assembled to travel to a company’s premises and see a presentation prepared by that company, after the contract had already been awarded.

    Walter Omwenga, the Deputy Director for Environment and Final Disposal who was among those who made the Accra trip, told Kenya Insights before the delegation departed that due diligence by definition required physically verifying that a bidder had the capacity described in their documents before a contract is signed. He did not explain why that verification was taking place after signing.

    THE COURT STEPS IN

    On March 5, 2026, Justice Moses Ado of the Milimani Commercial and Tax Division issued a conservatory order barring the Nairobi County Government, its Environment Chief Officer, its Director of Supply Chain Management and the County Secretary from executing or implementing the contract pending the hearing and determination of a petition challenging the deal.

    The order was obtained on an application filed by Jeremy Kinyua Emilio, who contends that the award to Zoomlion was illegal and unconstitutional, among other grounds because it was executed without the required approval of the Attorney General.

    Kinyua raised specific concerns about the Sh50 million bank guarantee submitted by Zoomlion as part of the tender, describing it as disproportionately low relative to the evident scale and value of the project.

    The figure is consistent with procurement documents that deliberately obscured the total contract sum: the tender, as advertised, specified no price. The conservatory order was granted pending a mention scheduled for March 16, 2026, for further directions.

    The petition additionally argues that at least two local companies are currently executing waste management contracts in Nairobi under earlier tenders, one for the supply of heavy equipment and machinery at Dandora, another for solid waste collection in Kibra, and that the Zoomlion concession threatens to displace those arrangements.

    Some of those contractors had already encountered delays in receiving county payments at the time the Zoomlion contract was awarded, an irony that has not been lost on the market.

    MOMBASA’S WARNING AND A NATIONAL PATTERN

    Nairobi is not the first Kenyan county to be drawn into the Jospong Group’s orbit.

    In October 2025, it emerged that Mombasa County, under Governor Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir, had already signed a 35-year waste management contract with a Jospong entity worth Sh17 billion.

    The Centre for Litigation Trust, a Mombasa-based civil society organisation, filed a High Court petition demanding disclosure of the procurement process and public participation records.

    The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has opened an investigation into the Mombasa arrangement. That investigation was ongoing when Nairobi signed its own, structurally similar, contract four months later.

    The pattern is being remarked upon by governance specialists with mounting alarm. Two of Kenya’s largest urban county governments have now awarded long-term waste management concessions to Jospong Group entities under procurement conditions that critics describe as opaque, legally deficient and designed to exclude competition.

    There is documented concern within government circles that other counties may follow, creating the conditions for a nationwide monopoly over one of municipal government’s most revenue-generating and publicly sensitive functions, held by a foreign company that Ghana itself has now repudiated.

    WHAT THE LAW REQUIRED, AND WHAT WAS DONE

    The Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015 requires that PPP projects above defined financial thresholds receive approval from the PPP Directorate and be subjected to competitive bidding processes designed to ensure value for money.

    The PPP Act 2021 sets out a distinct regulatory framework for arrangements involving private financing, construction and long-term operation of public infrastructure.

    By classifying the Zoomlion transaction as a local Request for Proposal rather than an international PPP concession, City Hall bypassed the PPP Directorate entirely, eliminated the requirement for international competitive advertising and compressed the timeline in a manner that precluded meaningful market participation.

    Senior procurement officials who reviewed the process for this publication used the word “irregular” with consistent frequency.

    Legal experts have separately warned that the structure of the contract, particularly the twenty-year tenure and the exclusive access to Dandora, is sufficient to sustain a successful legal challenge by any company that was denied the opportunity to compete.

    The Nairobi County Assembly was not consulted. Public participation records, required by statute for projects of this duration and character, have not been made available.

    The County Cabinet has not published any resolution approving the engagement on the disclosed terms. The terms themselves, including the financial model, the payment schedule, the revenue-sharing arrangement for recycling proceeds and the liability regime, have not been disclosed to the public whose assets and funds the contract deploys over the next two decades.

    THE COST OF WHAT WAS NOT DONE

    Dandora has operated for four decades as one of the most egregious examples of institutional failure in the history of Kenyan urban governance.

    In February 2026, the Environment and Land Court awarded Sh25.8 million in damages to 1,032 waste pickers whose constitutional rights were found to have been violated by their prolonged exposure to air pollution at the site.

    Both the Nairobi County Government and the National Environment Management Authority were found jointly responsible for permitting those conditions to persist.

    That judgment landed in the same week as the Zoomlion contract was being defended in public by the same county government that had just been found complicit in the suffering of the people who live and work at the dump.

    The city generates 3,000 metric tonnes of waste daily. The sector, if managed transparently and competitively, could sustain significant recycling revenue and waste-to-energy income for the public good.

    The question that the Zoomlion contract poses is not whether Nairobi needs a modern waste management system. It does, urgently and without further delay.

    The question is whether a company with Zoomlion’s documented record of bribery, fraudulent billing and exploitative labour practices, admitted in writing to the World Bank, exposed by an independent press and confirmed by multiple government bodies in its home country, and finally terminated by the government that spawned it, was the appropriate vehicle through which to pursue that transformation.

    The answer that City Hall’s own technical team gave to that question, in language that its political principals have chosen to disregard, was an unambiguous no.

  • Sakaja To Work Under Mudavadi In New Deal With Ruto For Nairobi County Functions

    Sakaja To Work Under Mudavadi In New Deal With Ruto For Nairobi County Functions

    Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has formally agreed to serve as the deputy of Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi on a powerful new joint steering committee for the capital, in the most dramatic restructuring of the city’s governance since the controversial Nairobi Metropolitan Services era.

    The bombshell arrangement, sealed at a high-profile ceremony at State House on Tuesday afternoon and witnessed personally by President William Ruto, places the elected governor of Africa’s fourth-largest city in a subordinate role to a national government official who does not hold an elected county mandate.

    The cooperation agreement, backed by Sh80 billion in projected investment, was signed by Mudavadi on behalf of the national government and Sakaja on behalf of Nairobi City County.

    It formalises a joint governance framework that critics say blurs the constitutional lines defining Kenya’s devolved system, even as its architects insist it represents nothing more than a funding boost for a cash-strapped city.

    “What we are formalising today is not a transfer of functions. Let me repeat, there is no transfer of functions taking place. For the avoidance of doubt, I have no interest in running the city; my hands are already full,” Ruto declared at the ceremony, in remarks that his supporters found reassuring and his detractors found unconvincing.

    Under the two-tier structure established by the pact, a Joint Steering Committee chaired by Mudavadi with Sakaja deputizing will set overall policy direction and coordinate national ministries and agencies with county officials.

    A second-tier Implementation Committee, comprising Nairobi County Executive Committee members and national Principal Secretaries, will oversee day-to-day project execution.

    For a governor who spent three years loudly proclaiming that Nairobi would never again be run from State House, Tuesday’s signing ceremony represented a politically jarring reversal.

    Only six days earlier, at the Nairobi County Assembly, Sakaja had thundered that the NMS era was a “defilement of devolution” that saddled the county with Sh16 billion in pending bills and broke the spirit of the public service.

    “In 2020, Nairobi got into a misadventure. The NMS experiment left us with a Sh16 billion hole in pending bills, low staff morale due to mistreatment and a defilement of devolution,” Sakaja told MCAs on February 11, in what now reads as either a prescient warning or an elaborate setup for Tuesday’s ceremony.

    The governor was at pains to reframe the deal in terms sharply distinct from that dark chapter. “This is not an NMS takeover. That was a misadventure that left behind Sh16 billion in debt. This is not a transfer of function. This is a cooperation that recognises Nairobi as the nation’s capital,” he said. “It demonstrates that, 13 years later, the President has heard us.”

    But the question of whether Nairobians were consulted before their governor agreed to sit underneath a national government appointee in the management of their city is already proving divisive.

    Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, who learnt of the signing from a media invite and not from City Hall, was unambiguous in his fury.

    “The Governor of Nairobi assured us he wasn’t transferring any functions to the National Government. I’m surprised to see a scheduled signing ceremony at State House this afternoon,” Sifuna posted on X as the ceremony was underway. “As we await to see what the actual thing is, I remind Sakaja Johnson to be mindful of the provisions of the Constitution and the need for involvement of the electorate and the leadership of Nairobi prior to making such decisions. Any unconstitutional clawback to devolution shall be strenuously resisted. A comprehensive statement shall follow.”

    The senator’s concerns are grounded firmly in the Constitution. Under Article 187, the transfer of a county function to the national government requires a formal deed of transfer, approval by the County Assembly, and proof that the function can be more effectively performed nationally. No such deed has been tabled before the Nairobi County Assembly, and Sifuna has made clear he has seen neither the deed nor an assembly resolution.

    Principal Secretary for Housing and Urban Development Charles Hinga added fuel to the fire last week when he told a city diplomacy forum that it was only a matter of time before the government fully took over Nairobi. “Nairobi is not a county but a capital city, so collaboration with the national government is inevitable despite what people say,” Hinga said, adding that the city under the current arrangement was “dysfunctional.” His remarks were widely seen as laying the political groundwork for exactly the kind of deal signed on Tuesday.

    President Ruto tried to smother the flames, assuring Kenyans that the agreement would be subjected to public participation and scrutiny by the Nairobi County Assembly before full implementation. “The sooner we start, the sooner Nairobians benefit from modern infrastructure and efficient city management,” he said.

    The pact, anchored on Section 6 of the Urban Areas and Cities Act 2019 which recognises Nairobi as Kenya’s capital city and mandates intergovernmental cooperation on funding and service delivery, spans five key sectors. Solid waste management will see a city-wide garbage collection system go live on April 1, backed by a 3,500-member “Green Army” and a new treatment plant at the Ruai facility capable of converting waste into power and fertiliser. Road infrastructure commitments include the rehabilitation of 62 kilometres of city roads through the Kenya Urban Roads Authority at a dedicated cost of Sh2.1 billion. On water and sewerage, the Athi Water Works Development Agency will lead long-term supply projects including a new dam in Maragua, the Northern Collector II Tunnel, and expansion of trunk sewer lines. The national government has committed to settling public lighting bills on all nationally-funded road projects. Ruto also announced contracts for 110,000 housing units in Nairobi City County, a Sh5 billion modern market at Gikomba, and construction of hostels to accommodate 14,000 students.

    Sakaja cited New York and Paris as capitals that receive substantial national government support while remaining under locally elected leadership, arguing that Nairobi was entitled to no less. He pointed to an increase of 140 million litres of water per day through the Northern Collector Tunnel as an early fruit of the collaboration, with plans underway to add nearly 200 million additional litres daily through upcoming projects.

    The deal is the first capital-specific intergovernmental framework of its scale since devolution began in 2013. Its architects call it a defining moment in Nairobi’s urban history. Its critics call it devolution’s most sophisticated undoing yet, dressed up in the language of cooperation.

    What is beyond dispute is this: for the first time since the NMS era that Sakaja himself called a defilement, the governor of the capital city will be sitting at a committee table, and Musalia Mudavadi will be at its head.

  • Tragedy As City Hall Hands Corrupt Ghanaian Firm Multimillion Garbage Collection Tender

    Tragedy As City Hall Hands Corrupt Ghanaian Firm Multimillion Garbage Collection Tender

    Nairobi County has awarded a controversial 20-year waste management contract worth billions of shillings to Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a corruption-tainted foreign company previously blacklisted by the World Bank and recently dropped by Ghana’s government over integrity concerns.

    The deal, signed by Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration, grants the Accra-based firm exclusive rights to manage the 76-acre Dandora dumpsite and operate an integrated solid waste management system across the capital in what civil society groups are now calling a procurement scandal that threatens to drain taxpayer resources while handing over a strategic public asset to a firm with a documented history of corruption.

    Investigations by Kenya Insights have established that Zoomlion was the sole bidder in a tender process that bypassed international competitive bidding protocols, raising serious questions about transparency and adherence to public procurement laws.

    The contract, awarded under Tender NO: NCC/ENV/RFP/109/2025-2026, was opened on January 8, 2026, but critics argue the procurement violated requirements for Public Private Partnership projects by sidelining the Public Procurement Directorate.

    Zoomlion’s troubled history reads like a catalogue of corruption scandals that would ordinarily disqualify any company from handling public funds. In 2013, the World Bank debarred Zoomlion Ghana Limited and two affiliates, Accra Compost Plant and Zoom Alliance, for two years after finding that the company had paid bribes to facilitate contract execution and invoice processing on the Emergency Monrovia Urban Sanitation Project in Liberia.

    The company and its subsidiaries were barred from bidding on World Bank-funded contracts worldwide, a sanction that remained in effect until 2015 when Zoomlion entered into a Negotiated Resolution Agreement with the Bank, acknowledging misconduct and accepting responsibility.

    In Ghana, Zoomlion’s relationship with state agencies has drawn persistent scrutiny over allegations of fraudulent billing, overbilling and questionable contracts.

    The company became embroiled in the infamous GYEEDA scandal in 2013, one of Ghana’s biggest corruption cases, when investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni exposed massive corruption in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency.

    A government-appointed ministerial committee corroborated the findings, revealing that about 80 percent of the funds allocated for the youth employment programme went to private businesses and corrupt officials while only 20 percent reached the youth the programme was meant to serve.

    Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong. Photo by courtesy.
    Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong. Photo by courtesy.

    Between 2009 and 2012, nearly 500 million dollars was spent on GYEEDA, with Zoomlion and other Jospong Group companies among the main beneficiaries.

    The committee found that Zoomlion had received millions in payments for work not done and was overcharging the state. For instance, the company charged the government 25 million cedis more than warranted for providing tricycles.

    The committee recommended discontinuation of Zoomlion’s contract, but successive Ghanaian governments failed to act on these findings.

    Instead of being punished, Zoomlion continued receiving payments even after its contract expired in February 2013.

    A cabinet sub-committee report revealed that despite President John Mahama’s directive to terminate the sanitation contract, Zoomlion continued rendering services to the state from 2013 onwards, accumulating debts of over 450 million cedis.

    The Ghanaian Auditor-General repeatedly flagged Zoomlion for financial irregularities.

    One report exposed how a waste bin contract awarded on a sole sourcing basis to the Jospong Group was inflated by at least 130 million cedis.

    Another revealed that 98 million cedis was awarded to 11 companies under the Jospong Group to undertake fumigation when Zoomlion, the parent company, had already been paid for the same work.

    The Ghanaian government pays Zoomlion 850 cedis per sweeper per month under the Youth Employment Agency initiative, but only 250 cedis goes to the workers, with Zoomlion pocketing the remaining 600 cedis as management fees. This arrangement has been described as exploitative by labour rights advocates.

    In June 2025, Ghana’s newly elected President John Mahama terminated Zoomlion’s long-standing Youth Employment Agency contract, citing transparency concerns and fair compensation issues for workers. The decision marked a significant shift after years of controversy surrounding the company’s operations.

    Despite these well-documented scandals, Nairobi has rolled out the red carpet for Zoomlion.

    The timing of the contract award has raised eyebrows, coming just weeks after President William Ruto and Governor Sakaja announced a joint initiative to clean up the capital and relocate the Dandora dumpsite.

    Ruto committed over Sh4 billion from the national government to support waste management improvements, with garbage collection set to begin on April 1, 2026.

    During the 2025 Devolution Conference in Homa Bay, President Ruto commended Zoomlion Ghana Limited for its advanced, technology-driven waste management facilities after visiting the Jospong Group stand.

    Interestingly, a City Hall delegation comprising teams from the Department of Environment and Procurement is scheduled to travel to Ghana tomorrow, February 15, for a benchmarking tour of Zoomlion’s facilities.

    The timing has sparked criticism from procurement experts who question why due diligence would be conducted after awarding the contract rather than before.

    Sources familiar with the tendering process told Kenya Insights that the procurement was structured to favor Zoomlion, with the tender framed as a local procurement despite the nature of the project warranting international competitive bidding under PPP regulations.

    This approach eliminated competition and deprived Kenyan companies of the opportunity to bid for the lucrative contract.

    The company’s executive chairman, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, faces ongoing legal troubles in Ghana.

    In late 2025, he and three others were dragged to court for contempt, accused of flouting High Court orders by entering disputed land and allegedly hiring thugs to destroy properties despite the existence of a court order and penal notice served upon them.

    The application, filed by Royal Bell Investment Ltd, Terraform Development Ltd and other parties, avers that Jospong and the other respondents would not abate their contemptuous conduct unless convicted and punished by imprisonment.

    In Mombasa, Zoomlion’s parent company, Jospong Group of Companies, is under investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission over a Sh17 billion, 35-year waste management contract signed by Governor Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir.

    The Centre for Litigation Trust, a Mombasa-based civil society group, has demanded transparency on the procurement process, public participation and whether the deal complies with public procurement and environmental management laws.

    The Nairobi contract gives Zoomlion control over waste collection, haulage, sorting, recycling and disposal for two decades, effectively creating a monopoly that locks out local companies and potentially costs Kenyan jobs.

    The 20-year tenure means the contract will outlast at least three gubernatorial terms, binding future county governments to a deal whose terms remain largely opaque to the public.

    When contacted for comment, Governor Sakaja had not responded by the time of going to press. However, in a recent interview with Nation, Sakaja defended his collaboration with the national government, insisting that unlike the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services arrangement, the current framework is not a transfer of functions but a support mechanism.

    He clarified that there would be no formal document under Article 187 of the Constitution transferring county functions, and emphasized that Nairobi’s unique status as Kenya’s capital demands a funding structure that reflects its national and international obligations.

    “We have not ceded any functions. A transfer of functions is not what we are discussing and it is not something we will do,” Sakaja said, adding that Nairobi requires closer collaboration with the national government because it carries responsibilities far beyond those of an ordinary county.

    The governor cited Section 6 of the Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2019, which recognizes Nairobi as Kenya’s capital and calls for formal cooperation between county and national governments on funding and service delivery.

    According to Sakaja, Nairobi hosts the Presidency, Parliament, Judiciary, foreign embassies, key national institutions and global offices and therefore needs a special financing model similar to other major cities worldwide.

    “Paris, with a population of 2 million, has a budget of Sh13 trillion yet Nairobi, with over 6 million people, has a budget of about Sh38 billion. If we want to compete with international cities, we must embrace special financing and strategic partnerships,” he said.

    The controversy threatens to undermine President Ruto’s ambitious plan to transform Nairobi’s waste management system and restore the capital’s image. The president announced plans to build a modern waste treatment facility at Dandora by 2027 to produce fertilizer and generate energy from garbage.

    Civil society activists are now calling for the tender to be cancelled and the procurement process reopened to ensure transparency, competition and value for taxpayers’ money.

    Anti-corruption campaigners warn that the deal could replicate Ghana’s experience, where despite Zoomlion’s near-total monopoly over sanitation contracts and billions spent over two decades, Ghana remains one of the dirtiest countries in Africa.

    The deal also raises questions about Kenya’s commitment to supporting local enterprises, as the contract hands over a strategic public asset to a foreign company with a documented history of corruption allegations, inflated billing and poor service delivery.

    Nairobi generates approximately 3,000 metric tonnes of waste daily, making waste management a lucrative sector that could generate significant revenue through recycling and waste-to-energy projects if managed transparently and competitively.

    Critics warn that awarding such a critical contract to a company with Zoomlion’s track record could expose Nairobi residents to poor service delivery while draining potential profits through corruption and overbilling, patterns well-documented in Ghana.

    The Dandora dumpsite has operated for decades as a major environmental and public health hazard. In February 2026, the Environment and Land Court awarded Sh25.8 million in damages to 1,032 waste pickers who suffered constitutional rights violations due to prolonged exposure to air pollution at the site.

    The court found both Nairobi County and the National Environment Management Authority jointly responsible for failing to protect workers from harmful pollution, adding legal pressure on the government to address longstanding concerns at the dumpsite.

    Legal experts have warned that the structure of the Nairobi-Zoomlion deal, particularly the 20-year tenure and exclusive access to Dandora dumpsite, could expose the county to litigation from companies that were denied the opportunity to compete for the contract.

    The Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 requires that PPP projects above certain thresholds must be approved by the PPP Directorate and involve competitive bidding processes that ensure value for money and protect public interest.

    By framing the tender as a local Request for Proposal while incorporating PPP elements, City Hall appears to have circumvented these safeguards, a move that could render the entire contract legally challengeable.

    Governance experts have expressed alarm at the pattern emerging in Kenya where counties are awarding waste management contracts to Zoomlion despite the company’s well-documented corruption scandals in Ghana. After Nairobi and Mombasa, there are concerns that other counties may follow suit, creating a nationwide monopoly for a foreign company whose track record suggests taxpayers will not get value for money.

    As Nairobi embarks on what officials describe as a transformative waste management era, the decision to partner with a corruption-tainted foreign firm threatens to turn what could have been a historic opportunity into yet another scandal that benefits a select few at the expense of taxpayers and the environment.

    The saga also highlights the broader challenge of corruption networks that transcend borders, with politically connected companies moving from one African country to another, securing lucrative government contracts despite their tainted reputations, while local businesses that could deliver better value struggle to access opportunities.

    For Nairobi residents who have endured decades of poor waste management, uncollected garbage and mountains of trash in estates, the promise of transformation rings hollow when delivered through a company whose home country terminated its contracts for the very failures Nairobians hope to escape.

  • Sakaja Alleges State House Plot to Seize City Hall as Service Failures Mount

    Sakaja Alleges State House Plot to Seize City Hall as Service Failures Mount

    Sakaja Blames Powerful Individuals in State House For Scheming To Take Over City Hall Roles Even As His Leadership Comes Under Scrutiny Over Underperformance

    Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has sensationally claimed that powerful individuals within the national government are scheming to wrest control of key City Hall functions, even as his administration faces mounting criticism over poor service delivery and financial mismanagement.

    Speaking in a wide-ranging interview over the weekend, the embattled governor said unnamed officials eyeing the lucrative Nairobi governorship in 2027 are pushing a sinister agenda to take over county functions through the backdoor, despite his categorical refusal to cede any responsibilities to the national government.

    “There are speculations, and some people are pushing that agenda. Think about the political stakes in Nairobi after the Presidency; there is no bigger position to contest than the governorship of Nairobi,” Sakaja said, his voice thick with frustration.

    The governor insisted that unlike the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services arrangement that left City Hall with a crippling Sh16 billion debt, the current framework with President William Ruto’s administration is merely a support mechanism and not a transfer of functions.

    “We have not ceded any functions. A transfer of functions is not what we are discussing and it is not something we will do. If there were a transfer of functions, there would be a formal document as provided for in Article 187 of the Constitution. Have you seen any such document? There is none,” Sakaja declared defiantly.

    But even as the governor attempts to fend off what he terms as a hostile takeover, his administration is drowning in a sea of failures that have left Nairobians questioning his competence and mandate to lead the capital city.

    City Hall is bleeding money like a wounded animal. Official records show that unpaid revenues ballooned by a staggering Sh2 billion between July and September last year, with land rates defaulters alone accounting for Sh1.29 billion of the unpaid dues. Only 50,000 out of 250,000 registered land parcels currently pay rates, exposing a catastrophic failure in revenue collection.

    The garbage crisis continues to choke the city, with mountains of refuse piling up in estates and the Central Business District despite Sakaja’s repeated promises to clean up Nairobi. Residents have watched helplessly as their once-beautiful city degenerates into a filthy mess, with the governor blaming everyone from the defunct NMS to rogue garbage collectors for the mess.

    Roads across the capital remain in shambles, pockmarked with potholes that swallow vehicles whole during the rainy season. Water scarcity has become the norm rather than the exception, with many estates going for days without supply. Street lighting is virtually non-existent in vast swathes of the city, turning them into crime hotspots where muggers and thugs reign supreme.

    The situation has become so dire that even members of the County Assembly, supposedly Sakaja’s allies, have turned against him with brutal honesty. Baba Dogo MCA Geoffrey Majiwa did not mince his words when he declared that the governor has failed residents for the past three years.

    “It is true that the governor has failed the residents for the past three years. He has done nothing. He talks about collaboration, but what is the nature of this collaboration? There must be papers showing a transfer of functions, yet we are seeing none. It is a sad tragedy for Nairobi,” Majiwa said, calling for Sakaja’s resignation or impeachment.

    Deputy Majority Whip Waithera Chege was equally scathing, openly welcoming greater national government involvement and faulting Sakaja for his spectacular failures.

    “For a long time, we have been crying to the President about the governor’s performance. We support this fully. It is clear that the governor has failed in delivering his mandate. What we want now is the implementation of all the projects through the national government. Residents want better services, nothing else,” Chege said without holding back.

    The political intrigue intensified after it emerged that Sakaja, accompanied by his entire cabinet, held a secret meeting with President Ruto at State House last week. No official communique was issued after the marathon session, fueling speculation that a deal to hand over key functions was sealed behind closed doors.

    Reports indicate that the arrangement covers garbage collection and disposal, public works including road construction and maintenance, water supply and affordable housing, with the national government committing an estimated Sh2.1 billion to accelerate service delivery through agencies like the Kenya Urban Roads Authority and Athi Water Works Development Agency.

    President Ruto himself has made several public pronouncements about taking charge of Nairobi’s transformation. In a church service at AIC Pipeline, he declared that his administration would handle waste management, roads and street lighting, signaling an increasingly central role for the national government in running the capital.

    “We must make Nairobi more accessible, and we have agreed with the governor on how we are going to do it. On water, we have completed the Northern Collector Tunnel and we now have an extra 140 million litres. We will deal with the garbage menace,” Ruto announced, leaving little doubt about the shift in power dynamics.

    Sakaja’s predicament mirrors that of his predecessor Mike Sonko, who was similarly pressured by President Uhuru Kenyatta into signing off key responsibilities to the NMS in 2020 after City Hall descended into chaos marked by leadership wrangles, corruption allegations and deteriorating service delivery.

    The governor has tried to defend his position by arguing that Nairobi’s unique status as the capital demands special financing and collaboration with the national government, citing examples of Paris and New York which receive substantial national support.

    “Paris, with a population of 2 million, has a budget of Sh13 trillion yet Nairobi, with over 6 million people, has a budget of about Sh38 billion. If we want to compete with international cities, we must embrace special financing and strategic partnerships,” Sakaja said, attempting to justify the controversial arrangement.

    He pointed to Section 6 of the Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2019, which recognises Nairobi as Kenya’s capital and calls for formal cooperation between county and national governments on funding and service delivery.

    However, constitutional lawyers and opposition politicians have raised serious questions about the legality of the arrangement. Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has been particularly vocal, pointing out that no formal deed of transfer has been tabled before the County Assembly as required by Article 187 of the Constitution.

    “Constitutionally there has to be a deed of transfer of functions. It has to be approved by the county assembly. I have seen neither,” Sifuna posted on social media, throwing cold water on Sakaja’s claims that no transfer has occurred.

    The drama has exposed the precarious position that Nairobi governors find themselves in, caught between the demands of running a complex metropolis and the political machinations of powerful interests at the national level who see control of the capital as a stepping stone to higher office.

    With AFCON 2027 on the horizon and mounting pressure to transform Nairobi into a world-class city, the stakes have never been higher. But as garbage piles up, roads crumble and residents suffer, the question on everyone’s lips is whether Sakaja has what it takes to turn things around, or whether the vultures circling State House will eventually swoop in to pick at the carcass of his failed administration.

    For now, the governor remains defiant, insisting that he will protect devolution and resist any attempts to undermine the county government. But with his performance record speaking louder than his words, time may be running out for Johnson Sakaja’s City Hall dream.

  • Sakaja Removes Mosiria From Lucrative Environment Docket in Dramatic City Hall Purge

    Sakaja Removes Mosiria From Lucrative Environment Docket in Dramatic City Hall Purge

    NAIROBI, KENYA – In a stunning political maneuver that has sent shockwaves through City Hall, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has stripped Geoffrey Mosiria of his powerful position as Chief Officer for Environment, relegating him to the less influential Citizen Engagement and Customer Service docket in what insiders are calling a calculated political demotion.

    The bombshell announcement, delivered through an official notice dated Tuesday, November 18, 2025, marks one of the most significant power realignments in Nairobi’s county government since Sakaja took office.

    The move has ignited fierce speculation about the governor’s true motives and the internal power struggles plaguing Kenya’s capital city administration.

    Geoffrey Mosiria’s sudden removal from the environment docket comes at a particularly intriguing moment.

    The department sits at the epicenter of Nairobi’s most visible failures: mountains of uncollected garbage rotting on street corners, toxic air pollution choking residents, drainage systems clogged beyond recognition, and environmental complaints flooding in from every corner of the city.

    Yet rather than face these challenges head-on, Mosiria finds himself shuffled sideways into a role managing citizen complaints about the very failures his former department couldn’t solve.

    The timing raises uncomfortable questions.

    Was Mosiria pushed out due to underperformance, or did he become a convenient scapegoat for systemic failures that run far deeper than one man’s tenure?

    Political watchers suggest the reshuffle may have less to do with service delivery and more to do with Sakaja consolidating his grip on power ahead of brewing political storms.

    Taking Mosiria’s place is Hibrahim Otieno, plucked from the Medical Facilities docket where he presumably demonstrated the crisis management skills now desperately needed to tackle Nairobi’s environmental nightmare.

    But skeptics wonder whether this game of musical chairs will produce any tangible results for long-suffering city residents, or whether Otieno is simply the next man to be thrown into an impossible situation.

    The reshuffle extends far beyond Mosiria, affecting ten senior county chief officers in what appears to be a wholesale reorganization of Sakaja’s inner circle.

    Godfrey Akumali has been yanked from Business and Hustler Opportunities and thrust into the politically explosive Housing and Urban Renewal sector, where Nairobi’s housing crisis festers like an open wound.

    His predecessor, Lydia Mathia, moves in the opposite direction, taking over the Business and Hustler Opportunities docket at a time when Nairobi’s informal economy is both booming and increasingly restive.

    Tony Michale Kimani sees his portfolio expanded from Social Services to Social Services and Estate Management, giving him authority over a sector notorious for bitter disputes, paralyzed service delivery, and land management battles that have destroyed political careers.

    Meanwhile, Sande Oyolo, previously focused on Digital Economy and Startups, finds himself suddenly responsible for Medical Facilities, a sensitive area dealing directly with public health during an era of heightened health consciousness.

    The technology and mobility sectors haven’t escaped Sakaja’s reshuffling axe.

    Wilson Gakuya moves from Smart Nairobi to Digital Economy and Start Ups, tasked with building technology infrastructure and empowering youth innovation in a city where young people increasingly feel abandoned by their leaders.

    Mache Waikenda’s portfolio expands from Mobility to include ICT Infrastructure, positioning him to influence transport systems and digital connectivity at a critical juncture for the city’s development.

    Clement Rapudo shifts from City Culture, Arts, and Tourism to the Smart Nairobi sector, linking him to the county’s much-hyped digital transformation agenda.

    His former position goes to Zipporah Mwangi, moved from the very Citizen Engagement role that Mosiria now inherits, in what looks like a carefully choreographed game of political Tetris.

    Governor Sakaja has defended the dramatic reshuffle by invoking Section 45(5) of the County Government Act 2012, insisting the changes aim to strengthen service delivery and place the right talent in the right positions.

    But his justification rings hollow to critics who see a governor more interested in political maneuvering than solving the real problems plaguing Nairobi residents.

    The county chief officers affected by this purge wield enormous power.

    They manage day-to-day departmental operations, oversee staff deployment, and drive policy implementation.

    Their performance determines whether Nairobi’s eight million residents get their garbage collected, their roads repaired, their health facilities functioning, and their businesses operating smoothly.

    When governors play politics with these positions, ordinary citizens pay the price.

    What makes Sakaja’s latest moves particularly revealing is his emerging leadership style, one that favors rapid, unilateral realignments over slow, consultative transitions.

    The governor appears determined to consolidate control, stamp his authority on every corner of City Hall, and inject new energy into departments that have grown complacent or resistant to his vision.

    But this aggressive approach carries risks.

    Constant reshuffles breed instability, demoralize civil servants, and can actually worsen service delivery as officers struggle to master new portfolios.

    For Geoffrey Mosiria, the reassignment represents a dramatic fall from grace, though some might argue it’s more of a lateral move wrapped in political theater.

    His new role managing citizen engagement places him in charge of the very feedback channels through which angry Nairobians will vent their frustrations about environmental failures he couldn’t fix.

    The irony is almost poetic.

    Whether this constitutes punishment, rehabilitation, or simply pragmatic redeployment depends on which City Hall corridor you’re walking down and who you’re talking to.

    The real question facing Nairobi residents is whether this latest reshuffle will produce any meaningful change in their daily lives.

    Will garbage finally get collected? Will drainage systems be unclogged? Will the air become breathable? Will housing projects move forward? Or will this prove to be yet another round of political theater designed to create the appearance of action while leaving fundamental problems untouched?

    History suggests caution.

    Nairobi has seen countless reshuffles, reorganizations, and realignments, each accompanied by promises of improved service delivery and efficient governance.

    Yet the city’s core challenges remain stubbornly persistent: environmental degradation, housing shortages, traffic chaos, inadequate health facilities, and a business environment that frustrates as much as it enables.

    Governor Sakaja’s aggressive reshuffling sends a clear message to his administration.

    No position is safe, no portfolio is permanent, and loyalty to the governor’s vision matters more than longevity in any particular role. Whether this creates a culture of excellence or one of anxiety remains to be seen.

    What’s undeniable is that the removal of Geoffrey Mosiria from the environment docket has thrust Nairobi politics back into the spotlight, exactly where it always seems to end up.

    As Nairobians watch this latest drama unfold, they’re left wondering the same question they always ask: when will their leaders stop playing political games and start actually governing?

    The answer, if City Hall’s track record is any guide, may be a long time coming.

    But for now, Geoffrey Mosiria packs up his environment files and prepares to field citizen complaints, while Hibrahim Otieno inherits a environmental crisis that has defeated everyone who’s tried to solve it.

    Welcome to Nairobi politics, where the chairs change but the music never stops playing.

  • Alarm Over Scheduled Sh230 Million Payout To Two Select Firms Putting Sakaja’s ‘Golden Girl’ Asha Abdi On The Spot

    Alarm Over Scheduled Sh230 Million Payout To Two Select Firms Putting Sakaja’s ‘Golden Girl’ Asha Abdi On The Spot

    Nairobi County Government is embroiled in a fresh controversy over a planned Sh230 million payout to two handpicked garbage collection companies, raising serious questions about financial propriety and transparency at City Hall under Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration.

    The focal point of this brewing scandal is Finance Chief Officer Asha Abdi, who has emerged as a central figure in what critics describe as questionable financial dealings that have become the hallmark of the current county administration.

    Abdi, often referred to as Sakaja’s “golden girl” or “sacred girl” by insiders, has written to Controller of Budget Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o requesting authorization for the controversial payment to Ace Global Limited and Lutong Machinery Resolution Company Limited.

    According to official documents dated September 8, 2025, and referenced NCC/FIN/CGW/509/2025, Abdi is seeking approval for Sh79,419,161 to be paid to Ace Global Limited through exchequer request NRB/FIN/1/70/2025/2026, while Lutong Machinery Resolution Company Limited is set to receive Sh150,338,000 through exchequer request NRB/FIN/1/72/2025/2026.

    The timing and circumstances surrounding these payments have raised eyebrows within City Hall, particularly given that all privately contracted garbage collectors under Sakaja’s administration have downed tools due to outstanding arrears exceeding Sh600 million.

    The decision to prioritize payments to only two companies while others remain unpaid has sparked internal departmental conflicts and accusations of favoritism.

    A senior county official, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed concerns about the selective nature of the payments.

    “It is fishy to claim that there is a resolution between an office and two handpicked companies. All contracted solid waste collectors ought to have been invited for joint deliberations to ensure continuity of service provision and phased payments in clearing the monies owed to them. The resolution cited between only two firms is suspect including the amounts recommended for payment,” the official stated.

    The controversy gains additional significance when viewed against Asha Abdi’s prominent role during the recently failed impeachment attempt against Governor Sakaja.

    County Assembly members had specifically demanded her dismissal as a precondition for dropping their ouster bid against the governor, highlighting the contentious nature of her position within the administration.

    However, Sakaja successfully negotiated to retain her services, leading to speculation about the nature of their working relationship and her apparent indispensability to his administration.

    Abdi’s career trajectory adds another layer of complexity to the current controversy.

    She previously served as County Executive Committee Member for Finance and Health in Isiolo County between 2013 and 2017, before moving to Mombasa County where she held the portfolio for Finance and Tourism in 2017.

    Her appointment to the influential finance position in Nairobi County has been marked by persistent allegations of financial impropriety.

    In her correspondence to the Controller of Budget, Abdi justified the selective payments by claiming that “only two service providers (Ace Global Limited and Lutong Machinery Resolution Company Limited) have agreed to continue providing services despite the non-payment.”

    This explanation has been met with skepticism from county officials who question why other contractors were not given similar opportunities to negotiate payment terms.

    The planned payout comes at a particularly sensitive time for Nairobi County Government, which is grappling with a severe cash flow crisis that has left county workers on a go-slow since September 18, 2025.

    The Kenya County Government Workers Union Nairobi branch, through Secretary Calvince Okello, has urged employees to slow down or stay home until their salaries and third-party remittances for July and August 2025 are settled.

    This situation underscores the irony of prioritizing payments to private contractors while county employees struggle to receive their lawful dues.

    A pattern of questionable transactions 

    The current controversy is not an isolated incident but part of a disturbing pattern of questionable financial transactions that have characterized the Sakaja administration.

    Historical records reveal that garbage collection and legal fees have been consistently used as vehicles for embezzling public funds at City Hall.

    In 2022 alone, a select group of companies received over Sh2 billion through repeated payouts, with transactions occurring in suspicious patterns that suggest systematic manipulation of the payment system.

    Documentation shows that between May 4 and May 31, 2022, Sh683 million was paid to 42 companies across 51 different transactions.

    On a single day, April 25, 2022, Sh296 million was disbursed to thirteen companies through sixteen separate transactions.

    From January 26 to March 23, 2024, another Sh754 million was expended in favor of 48 companies across 55 transactions, while Sh294 million was paid to fourteen companies through 19 transactions between July 1 and July 16, 2021.

    These patterns have not gone unnoticed by regulatory authorities.

    In 2019, the Financial Reporting Centre flagged several companies for suspected involvement in a multi-billion fraudulent procurement syndicate at Nairobi County Government.

    A particularly disturbing revelation from the FRC report indicated that “large cash declaration forms completed during cash withdrawals indicated the beneficiary of funds to be street boys employed to collect garbage,” suggesting a sophisticated money laundering operation.

    Intricate web of corruption 

    The allegations against Asha Abdi extend beyond the current garbage collection controversy.

    Intelligence sources indicate that she operates as part of what insiders call “The Untouchables” of City Hall, a powerful network that allegedly includes County Executive Committee Member for Finance Charles Kerich and Ward Development Fund Acting Chief Executive Officer Eston Kimathi, who reportedly serves in his position illegally.

    This alleged network is accused of creating an intricate system that diverts county funds to companies linked to their associates and family members through various projects including garbage collection, disaster management, and road construction.

    One company at the center of these allegations, Emari Ventures, reportedly received Sh230 million since October 2024, including Sh19 million in March 2024 for the supposed rehabilitation of a Social Hall in Lower Savannah Ward, Embakasi East, whose completion and value remain questionable.

    The systematic nature of the alleged corruption extends to the silencing of dissenting voices within the county administration.

    Daniel Nguru, a senior accountant, was reportedly demoted to social services after questioning certain financial transactions, while Martha Wambugu, a long-serving finance officer, was demoted and transferred to Risk Management.

    Meanwhile, Caroline Wang’ang’a has been installed as head of treasury and is allegedly under the complete control of Asha Abdi, effectively eliminating checks and balances in the financial management system.

    The web of alleged corruption extends into the county assembly, with Eastleigh North MCA Ahmedgadar Mohamed Dabar specifically named as collaborating with Abdi and Kimathi to divert Ward Development Funds for personal gain.

    Other officials allegedly involved include Nairobi City County Assembly Speaker Ken Ng’ondi, accountant Vincent Muhanji, Stephen Mafura, and Denis Muia, who is described as a close ally to Abdi and handles work plans.

    A particularly troubling pattern has emerged regarding end-of-financial-year transactions, with sources revealing that the county government has “developed the habit of making millions and sometimes billions of fake payments” during this period, clearing county coffers under the guise of settling development budget pending bills before the start of new financial years.

    The current controversy recalls events from August 2023 when both Abdi and Kerich allegedly fled to Istanbul, Turkey, when the Directorate of Criminal Investigations began probing fraudulent payments for non-existent goods and services that cost the county hundreds of millions.

    At that time, Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o had declined to approve a Sh1.5 billion expenditure requisition from Nairobi County Government due to lack of proper supporting documentation.

    Despite mounting allegations and evidence of systematic corruption within his administration, Governor Sakaja has maintained a conspicuous silence on these financial irregularities.

    Johnson Sakaja.
    Johnson Sakaja.

    When confronted about financial improprieties, the administration typically points to a claimed 32 percent increase in revenue collection, reaching over Sh9 billion by March 2024.

    However, this purported financial performance has not translated into improved service delivery for Nairobi residents, who continue to endure uncollected garbage, deteriorating infrastructure, and collapsed basic services.

    The current situation represents a critical test for the Controller of Budget’s office and other oversight institutions.

    Dr. Nyakang’o’s decision on whether to approve the Sh230 million payment will signal whether accountability mechanisms can function effectively in the face of systematic attempts to circumvent proper financial controls.

    For ordinary Nairobi residents, the implications of these financial machinations are stark and immediate. Public funds meant for essential services and infrastructure development are being diverted to private pockets while the city’s infrastructure crumbles and basic services fail.

    The irony is not lost that while county workers go without salaries and residents endure poor service delivery, select companies continue to receive massive payments through questionable arrangements.

    The garbage collection sector, which should be a basic service provided efficiently to residents, has become a conduit for large-scale financial irregularities that undermine public trust in county governance.

    The fact that waste management services have stalled across most parts of the city due to non-payment of legitimate service providers, while select companies receive preferential treatment, illustrates the distorted priorities that have come to characterize the current administration.

    As investigations continue and pressure mounts from various quarters, the Asha Abdi controversy represents more than just another corruption scandal.

    It embodies the systematic failure of governance structures and the capture of public institutions by private interests.

    The question now is whether oversight bodies and the justice system possess the will and capacity to hold these “untouchables” accountable, or whether this elaborate web of corruption will continue to drain county resources at the expense of Nairobi’s four million residents.

    The unfolding saga serves as a reminder that effective governance requires robust accountability mechanisms and the political will to enforce them, regardless of how politically connected or “untouchable” the perpetrators may appear to be.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

  • Audit Exposes Sh39 Billion Fake Supplier Bills Under Sakaja

    Audit Exposes Sh39 Billion Fake Supplier Bills Under Sakaja

    A comprehensive audit has uncovered what appears to be one of the largest financial discrepancies in Nairobi County’s history, with Sh39.8 billion mysteriously removed from the county’s pending bills register, raising serious questions about the authenticity of supplier claims under Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration.

    The Controller of Budget, Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o, has revealed an unexplained 32.7 percent reduction in Nairobi’s supplier arrears, which dropped from Sh121.8 billion to Sh86.8 billion over the year ending June 2025.

    This dramatic decrease has triggered demands for a detailed explanation from the Auditor-General’s office about how such a massive amount could simply vanish from official records.

    The timing of this discovery is particularly concerning as it comes amid widespread complaints from legitimate contractors who continue to wait months or even years for payments from both county and national governments.

    Many small and medium-sized businesses that depend on government contracts have found themselves blacklisted by credit reference bureaus after defaulting on loans while waiting for delayed payments.

    Charles Kerich, Nairobi’s County Executive Committee Member for Finance and Economic Affairs, has attempted to provide explanations for the reduction, citing the elimination of “unjustifiably high” legal fees and the removal of a disputed Sh300 million bank loan from the pending bills register.

    He also mentioned that the county paid Sh1 billion in outstanding pensions and realigned contingent liabilities related to loans borrowed in the 1980s.

    However, these explanations account for only Sh4 billion of the total Sh39.8 billion reduction, leaving a substantial gap that remains unexplained.

    The Controller of Budget has made it clear that Nairobi County must provide a comprehensive breakdown to the Auditor-General of how this reconciliation was conducted.

    This latest scandal adds to a troubling pattern of financial irregularities at City Hall. In April, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission revealed court filings detailing how rogue county officials had paid Sh407 million to shadowy businesses through fraudulent transactions between 2016 and 2022.

    The investigation found that senior officials approved irregular payments to 14 unprequalified business entities for supplies that were never delivered.

    The broader implications of this audit extend beyond Nairobi County.

    The Controller of Budget noted that the reduction in Nairobi’s pending bills caused the overall debt owed by all 47 counties to suppliers to decrease from Sh181.9 billion to Sh176.8 billion.

    Despite this reduction, Nairobi still holds the dubious distinction of having the largest unpaid debts among all counties at Sh86.77 billion.

    The aging analysis of Nairobi’s remaining pending bills reveals another disturbing trend.

    Over 71 percent of the outstanding debts, amounting to Sh62.38 billion, have been pending for more than three years. This prolonged delay in payments has created a ripple effect throughout the business community, with many suppliers facing financial ruin while waiting for their money.

    The situation has become so dire that asset seizures among government suppliers have increased significantly.

    Hundreds of business owners who once eagerly sought government contracts now describe the financial pain of years-long payment delays as unbearable.

    The irony is stark: while the government remains the biggest spender in the country, its payment practices are driving legitimate businesses into bankruptcy.

    Dr. Nyakang’o expressed particular concern about the continued accumulation of new pending bills, noting that counties added Sh48.9 billion to their unpaid obligations between July 2024 and June 2025, despite receiving full disbursements from the Treasury.

    This trend suggests systemic issues in financial management across the devolved units.

    The Controller of Budget also highlighted discrepancies between the pending bills that many counties report to her office and the figures contained in their official financial statements, pointing to potential widespread irregularities in financial reporting across the country.

    For Governor Sakaja’s administration, this audit represents a significant credibility challenge.

    Having come into office promising transparency and fiscal responsibility, the unexplained removal of nearly Sh40 billion from the county’s books without proper documentation raises serious questions about financial governance under his leadership.

    The demand for accountability is growing louder, with the Controller of Budget insisting that Nairobi County must provide a detailed analysis of its reconciliation process to the Auditor-General.

    Until such explanations are forthcoming, the specter of fake supplier bills and fraudulent transactions will continue to hang over City Hall, undermining public trust in the county’s financial management.

    As investigations continue, the people of Nairobi are left wondering how many more financial irregularities remain hidden in the county’s books, and whether the current administration has the political will to root out the systemic corruption that has plagued City Hall for years.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

  • Sakaja on The Spot As Wage Bill Shoots By Triple To Sh17.3 Billion in 3 Years

    Sakaja on The Spot As Wage Bill Shoots By Triple To Sh17.3 Billion in 3 Years

    Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja faces mounting pressure over what auditors describe as an unprecedented hiring spree that has seen the county’s wage bill balloon from Sh6 billion to a staggering Sh17.3 billion in just three years.

    The dramatic surge represents a 188.6 percent increase in employee costs, with the county’s workforce nearly tripling from 5,777 workers in June 2022 to 16,321 by June 2024, according to a damning special audit report by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu.

    The explosive growth in staff numbers has pushed Nairobi County into dangerous financial territory, with employee compensation now consuming 55.9 percent of total revenue compared to 36.7 percent the previous year.

    This far exceeds the legal limit of 35 percent set by Public Finance Management regulations, designed to ensure development projects aren’t starved of funding.

    The hiring binge began almost immediately after Sakaja took office in September 2022, with staff numbers jumping to 13,355 by June 2023 in his first full financial year.

    Employee costs during that period alone surged by 86.4 percent to Sh11.18 billion as the governor delivered on campaign promises to convert casual workers to permanent positions and expand the workforce.

    However, the aggressive recruitment drive has come at a steep price.

    The bloated wage bill now exceeds the county’s own-source revenue collections, which have averaged just Sh10.8 billion annually over the past two years.

    This has left Nairobi heavily dependent on Treasury disbursements to meet basic operational costs, including paying salaries on time.

    The financial strain became evident last month when county employees faced delayed August salary payments due to late Treasury disbursements.

    Head of Public Service Godfrey Akumali was forced to issue a circular explaining the delays, highlighting the precarious position the county finds itself in.

    More troubling are emerging concerns about ghost workers bleeding the county’s already stretched resources.

    The audit revealed that 27 employees who collectively earned Sh47.552 million between June 2022 and last year failed to appear for mandatory physical verification exercises, raising red flags about their existence.

    Additional irregularities include mismatched birth dates between the payroll system and official documents, potentially allowing some workers to exceed retirement age or be prematurely forced out.

    Questions also persist about 1,700 employees allegedly hired illegally by the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services, which was prohibited from recruiting new staff.

    The wage bill crisis has severely hampered the county’s ability to deliver critical services to residents, with development projects taking a backseat to salary obligations.

    Healthcare, water supply, and road infrastructure have suffered as available funds are consumed by personnel costs.

    County governments across Kenya have struggled with similar challenges since devolution began, but Nairobi’s situation stands out for its sheer scale and rapid deterioration.

    The capital city, which should be generating substantial own-source revenue, now faces the paradox of having more money going to employee salaries than it collects from its own operations.

    As calls for accountability grow louder, Governor Sakaja must navigate the delicate balance between honoring employment commitments made during his campaign and restoring the county’s financial health.

    The audit findings present a stark warning that without immediate intervention, Nairobi County risks financial collapse under the weight of its own payroll.

  • ‘Cooking Books’: Sakaja Faces Fresh Crisis as MCAs Demand For The Location of Nairobi Pay Servers

    ‘Cooking Books’: Sakaja Faces Fresh Crisis as MCAs Demand For The Location of Nairobi Pay Servers

    Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja is facing mounting pressure from ward representatives who are demanding full disclosure of the county’s revenue collection system, casting doubt on the authenticity of reported financial figures.

    The controversy erupted during a heated committee session at City Hall, where Members of the County Assembly accused the governor’s administration of presenting “cooked” revenue figures without providing supporting documentation.

    The legislators are specifically demanding to know the exact location of Nairobi Pay servers, the digital platform used to collect millions of shillings in daily county revenue.

    Mark Ruyi, the ICT Committee Chairperson and Hospital Ward MCA, led the charge in calling for transparency, insisting that the county executive provide certified copies of bank statements showing revenue collected in previous financial years.

    The demand comes amid growing skepticism about the county’s financial management practices.

    “Where are the servers of this system located? How much is actually collected beyond the figures they announce? How come we cannot pay salaries when the county collects revenue every day?” questioned Kayole Central MCA Jeremiah Themendu, highlighting the disconnect between reported collections and the county’s apparent cash flow problems.

    The timing of these demands is particularly significant, coming just after County Secretary Godfrey Akumali announced delays in August 2025 salary payments, blaming late disbursements from the National Treasury.

    This explanation has failed to satisfy the MCAs, who point to the county’s daily revenue collections as evidence that funds should be available.

    Mike Gumo, the Innovation and Digital Economy Executive, attempted to deflect responsibility by claiming his department lacks access to the revenue system and bank accounts.

    He explained that only Chief Officer for Finance Asha Abdi, as the sole signatory, can produce the required financial statements.

    This explanation has done little to quell the legislators’ concerns. Mathare North MCA Oscar Lore emphasized the fundamental problem facing oversight efforts, stating that without detailed revenue documents, it becomes impossible to verify the county’s reported collections.

    The dispute has broader implications for Nairobi’s financial credibility. While the county reported record collections of Sh13.7 billion in the last financial year, this figure fell short of the Sh20 billion target. More troubling for transparency advocates is the revelation that external auditors have been denied access to the revenue system for two years, severely hampering verification efforts.

    The auditors’ frustration has reached a breaking point, with some resigning due to budget cuts and their inability to access crucial financial systems.

    Letters to Governor Sakaja seeking system access have reportedly gone unanswered, further fueling suspicions about the county’s financial operations.

    Adding to the administration’s woes is the stalled work of a separate ad hoc committee formed in 2023 to investigate revenue losses.

    Despite consuming millions of shillings in over 20 meetings, this committee has failed to produce any report, with members blaming each other for the deadlock.

    The current crisis represents another chapter in City Hall’s troubled financial history, following controversies that plagued previous administrations under Evans Kidero and Mike Sonko.

    For Sakaja, who campaigned on promises of improved governance and transparency, these allegations pose a significant threat to his political credibility.

    The MCAs have made it clear that they will not relent in their oversight responsibilities, demanding that the county executive present comprehensive financial documents to enable effective monitoring of revenue collection and expenditure.

    Until these demands are met, questions about the authenticity of Nairobi’s revenue figures are likely to persist, casting a shadow over the governor’s administration.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

  • Freemasons Sue Sakaja for Compensation Over Nairobi Hall Shutdown

    Freemasons Sue Sakaja for Compensation Over Nairobi Hall Shutdown

    NAIROBI, Kenya, May 21, 2025 – The Freemasons Society has filed a lawsuit against Nairobi County Government, seeking compensation for damages following the closure of their hall in a dispute over Sh19 million in allegedly unpaid land rates.

    In proceedings before High Court Judge Bahati Mwamuye, the society accuses Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration of unlawfully encroaching on their Nyerere Road property despite an existing exemption from land rates.

    Court documents filed by Rachier and Amollo Advocates detail how county officials forcibly entered the premises on May 14, demolished a gate, and posted a notice claiming ownership over unpaid rates.

    The Freemasons called these actions “illegal and a violation of their constitutional rights.”

    “The respondent, acting through its agents, unlawfully entered the petitioner’s property, used excessive force, and caused damage,” the court papers state.

    The Masonic Trustees argue that as a registered philanthropic organization, they were granted exemption from land rates through Legal Notices 389 and 390 of 1990 – exemptions they maintain remain valid and have never been revoked.

    According to their filing, Nairobi County had previously acknowledged this exemption and withdrawn similar notices in past incidents.

    The society contends that the county’s conduct breaches Article 47 of the Constitution, which guarantees fair administrative action and requires public bodies to honor their prior decisions.

    The Freemasons are seeking a court declaration that the county cannot demand rates it had previously waived, compensation for rights violations, and reimbursement of legal costs.

    Justice Mwamuye has scheduled a hearing for May 29, 2025.

  • Freemasons’ Leader Rejects Sakaja’s Sh19M Land Claim, Offers Rare Glimpse Into Masonic Practices

    Freemasons’ Leader Rejects Sakaja’s Sh19M Land Claim, Offers Rare Glimpse Into Masonic Practices

    Freemasons Grand Master Refutes Nairobi County’s Sh19 Million Land Rates Claim, Tells Kenyans Their Secrets

    In a rare public appearance, William Ramsay McGhee, Grand Master Mason of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, has denied allegations that the Freemason Society owes Governor Johnson Sakaja’s Nairobi County Sh19 million in unpaid land rates, describing the claims as “unfounded.”

    McGhee’s statement follows a raid on Freemasons’ Hall on Nyerere Road by county officials led by Health CEC Susan Silantoi.

    The operation was part of a broader crackdown targeting Sh50 billion in outstanding land rate payments across the county.

    “The property is registered under a trust, which exempts it from such rates,” McGhee explained.

    “We are currently in talks with the county government, and a joint statement will be issued soon.”

    During the enforcement operation, a county official identified as Njoroge contradicted the initial Sh19 million figure, stating that the plot in question owes approximately Sh4 million.

    Officials threatened to seize the property until the debt is cleared.

    McGhee took the opportunity to address public misconceptions about Freemasonry.

    “We are told Freemasonry is a secret society, it is not,” he stated. “Freemasonry is purely an organization where we try to make good men better men.”

    He emphasized the society’s core values of integrity, honesty, and godliness, highlighting its three foundational pillars which he described as representing “all that is good in mankind.”

    McGhee also stressed the organization’s commitment to supporting both members and non-members.

    The Nairobi County operation is part of an aggressive campaign to recover Sh10 billion within two months.

    County officials noted that many landowners had ignored a previous waiver period offered for settling outstanding debts.

    This public defense marks a significant moment for the Freemasons, an organization traditionally shrouded in mystery, as it navigates both financial scrutiny and public perception in Kenya.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

  • Beasts of Nairobi: ‘Kanjo’ Men Exposed for Demanding Sex for Hawking Space

    Beasts of Nairobi: ‘Kanjo’ Men Exposed for Demanding Sex for Hawking Space

    “Sleep with us or lose your merchandise”: Female hawkers reveal shocking abuse by city inspectorate officers

    Female street vendors in Nairobi’s Central Business District have come forward with disturbing allegations of systematic sexual harassment and extortion by members of the city inspectorate, commonly known as “kanjos.”

    In explosive testimony before the Nairobi County Assembly, several women described a predatory system where officers routinely demand sexual favors in exchange for allowing them to operate their businesses without interference.

    “I have experienced it personally,” said Jane (name changed to protect her identity), who bravely testified before Members of County Assembly. “My colleagues have also been told to sleep with these officers to be allowed to hawk without interference.”

    According to Jane, the officers don’t make conventional advances. “They don’t court us or make overt advances. They simply expect us to obey,” she revealed, identifying one of the alleged perpetrators by his street name “Brown.”

    Jane described how her refusal to comply with sexual demands and bribery requests led to violent retribution.

    After threatening to expose the officers involved, she was subjected to escalating harassment.

    “They returned, took my merchandise, assaulted me, and dragged me on the ground,” she recounted. “Their leader called me a prostitute and declared I would not be allowed to sell there again.”

    The assault left Jane with severe injuries requiring hospitalization and the use of a spinal belt. Despite doctors advising her to limit movement, she continues her fight for justice while struggling financially.

    “I’m bedridden. I can’t take my children to school. I have bills to pay and I’m surviving on loans from friends,” she explained. “I just want justice and to get my items back so I can earn a living.”

    “Pay or sleep with them”: A widespread pattern of abuse

    Another hawker, identified only as Damaris, confirmed that such harassment is commonplace in Nairobi’s streets, telling reporters: “This is nothing new. You either pay a weekly bribe or sleep with one of them.”

    She declined to provide further details or her full name, citing concerns for her personal safety in a system where retaliation appears to be common.

    Johnson Sakaja.
    Johnson Sakaja.

    The allegations come despite Governor Johnson Sakaja’s reshuffling of the Inspectorate Department five months ago following mounting complaints of harassment.

    Former Chief Officer for Security and Compliance, Tony Kimani, was transferred to the Customer Care docket, while Eva Wangechi Wairiuko was appointed Acting Chief Officer of the Inspectorate.

    However, both Wairiuko and the Director of City Inspectorate, Benjamin Omondi, failed to appear before the County Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) despite being summoned to respond to the accusations.

    Mugumo-ini MCA and committee chair Jared Akama confirmed an ongoing investigation following Jane’s formal complaint.

    Meanwhile, Nairobi CBD MCA Mwaniki Kwenya has submitted a petition citing similar abuses by inspectorate officers.

    Kwenya has called for the immediate suspension of the department’s leadership, accusing them of violating the rights of hawkers who pay taxes to the county government.

    He also reported being personally harassed while attempting to prevent officers from assaulting traders.

    “We will take action,” assured Akama. “The heads of the Inspectorate Department will be summoned to appear next week to respond to these serious allegations.”

    As the investigation unfolds, many hawkers continue to work in fear, caught between the need to earn a living and the predatory practices of those tasked with maintaining order in Kenya’s capital city.

  • Nairobi County Starts Freezing Accounts, Auctions Properties of Land Rate Defaulters

    Nairobi County Starts Freezing Accounts, Auctions Properties of Land Rate Defaulters

    Nairobi County has begun implementing drastic measures against land rate defaulters, including freezing bank accounts and auctioning properties, in a bid to recover nearly Sh50 billion in outstanding debts.

    The crackdown, which began Tuesday morning, follows expiration of multiple grace periods and waiver opportunities offered by Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration.

    County officials started marking non-compliant buildings on Monday before deploying enforcement teams across the city at 8 am Tuesday.

    “Our patience has run out,” said Tiras Wainaina Njoroge, Chief Officer for Revenue Administration in Nairobi.

    “We have people running businesses across the city, who have big residences around the city and have not been making their payments despite us giving waivers and increasing the grace period for them to comply.”

    According to county data, only about 50,000 of the city’s 256,000 land parcels are up to date with their payments.

    Officials report that majority of defaulters are from high-end areas including Runda, Kileleshwa, Kilimani, Westlands, Kitisuru, Mountain View, Dagoretti North, CBD, South C, Kamukunji and Eastleigh.

    The county government is targeting to collect more than Sh10 billion during the two-month enforcement drive.

    Tactics will include:

    – Freezing bank accounts of defaulters
    – Auctioning properties with significant outstanding debts
    – Collecting rent directly from tenants occupying properties with unpaid rates until debts are cleared

    Mr. Njoroge emphasized that the county had made multiple attempts to reach defaulters before resorting to enforcement.

    “We have sent messages to people, encouraging them to come and make payments. We have even considered that there are people who might be working from Monday to Friday, and we have left the customer care service open for Saturdays to ensure that people can come in and comply. We have even gone door to door.”

    The county official insisted that all enforcement actions will comply with the National Rating Act, 2024.

    This crackdown comes as Governor Sakaja’s administration faces pressure to increase revenue collection to fund city services and development projects.

    Critics have questioned the timing of the aggressive enforcement approach, while business associations have called for more flexible payment arrangements.

    Property owners with outstanding land rates are advised to contact City Hall immediately to make payment arrangements before enforcement actions affect their properties or financial accounts.

  • Engineers Expose Sakaja’s Digital Planning System as Loophole for Stealing Millions

    Engineers Expose Sakaja’s Digital Planning System as Loophole for Stealing Millions

    The Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) has launched a scathing attack on Nairobi County’s digital development approval system, claiming it has been “purposely made to fail” to facilitate corruption and bribery.

    In a strongly-worded statement released yesterday, the engineering body alleges that Governor Johnson Sakaja’s much-touted Nairobi Planning & Development Management System (NPDMS) has become a tool for extracting millions from developers and engineers.

    The IEK, representing over 12,000 engineers nationwide, claims that despite the establishment of the online platform, development applications face deliberate delays unless applicants pay bribes or make physical visits to county offices.

    “The corrupt system is designed to manufacture desperation inducing the need to bribe to get the approvals and save face,” said Eng. Shammah Kiteme, President of IEK, in the statement.

    According to engineers who spoke on condition of anonymity, approvals that should take weeks are deliberately stretched to as long as a year, forcing desperate professionals to pay bribes to move their projects forward.

    “Our clients think engineers are incompetent and the credibility dent is a career threat to our members,” the IEK statement reads, highlighting how the situation is damaging the professional reputation of engineers.

    The engineering body outlined specific failings of the digital system that they claim are not accidental but deliberately engineered to defeat the purpose of digitalization:

    – Delayed or missing payment confirmations
    – Unclear workflows and feedback channels
    – Excessive manual interventions despite digital submissions
    – Lack of integration with other key institutions

    The IEK statement comes at a critical time when Nairobi is experiencing a construction boom, with ambitious infrastructure projects planned across the city. Engineers warn that corruption in the approval process not only slows development but potentially compromises public safety by allowing substandard projects to proceed through bribery.

    The situation has reached a crisis point where the IEK is calling for intervention from multiple oversight agencies, including the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

    They’ve demanded a thorough audit of the approval process and accountability for those involved in corruption.

    When contacted, Nairobi County officials declined to comment directly on the allegations but stated that they are “continuously working to improve service delivery across all departments.”

    Urban planning experts note that inefficiencies in the development approval process have wider economic implications, driving up the cost of construction and housing in a city already struggling with affordability issues.

    “Every day of delay costs developers money through financing charges, delayed returns, and inflation of construction materials,” said Dr. Jane Muthoni, an urban planning specialist. “These costs are ultimately passed on to Nairobi residents.”

    The IEK has offered to work with the county to create a truly transparent and efficient approval system, emphasizing that public interest must be placed above individual gain.

    As pressure mounts on Governor Sakaja’s administration to address these allegations, questions remain about how deeply the corruption extends within the county government and whether the digital system was compromised from its inception.

  • Nairobi MPs Slam Governor Sakaja for Poor Leadership, Neglect, and Mismanagement

    Nairobi MPs Slam Governor Sakaja for Poor Leadership, Neglect, and Mismanagement

    A section of Nairobi MPs has accused Governor Johnson Sakaja of failing to deliver on his mandate, citing poor service delivery, a lack of cooperation with elected leaders, and negligence in addressing critical issues affecting residents.

    Speaking during an interview with Citizen TV, the MPs criticised Sakaja for sidelining local leaders and ignoring the electorate that voted him into office.

    Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi revealed that repeated attempts to engage Sakaja on key issues had failed, accusing him of cutting off communication and refusing to collaborate with city leaders.

    “I have tried calling the guy, but he doesn’t pick up. Even if you try, the phone doesn’t go through—we’ve tried everything, and nothing works. He only attended one meeting with Nairobi MPs, where we agreed he would share his work schedule so we could coordinate and support his efforts. Any governor who works with local leaders—MPs and MCAs—will always have an easier time,” Wanyonyi said.

    He added that even during emergencies, such as last year’s floods, attempts to contact the governor went unanswered.

    “I called him directly because his office handles disaster management. But there was no response. We ended up hiring private equipment to assist residents. We’ve tried everything and failed. Now, we’ve left the rest to God,” he said.

    Wanyonyi claimed that his withdrawal from the 2022 Nairobi gubernatorial race, following pressure from the Azimio la Umoja coalition, played a major role in Sakaja’s victory. He said his supporters were angered by the coalition’s decision to replace him with Polycarp Igathe, leading many to vote for Sakaja instead.

    “Even though I wanted that seat, the truth is I was in the race. And this guy knows my votes helped put him there. When I was asked to step down, people were furious and said they’d vote for him, not the endorsed candidate,” Wanyonyi said.

    The MP also accused the governor of neglecting his Westlands constituency entirely.

    “He has ignored Westlands. He doesn’t come here and hasn’t done anything. Everything that’s been done, I’ve done it myself with my team. There are problems everywhere, and our governor has become a man of many travels. My votes are the ones that put him in office.”

    Poor services

    Babu Owino
    Babu Owino

    Embakasi East MP Babu Owino echoed Wanyonyi’s frustrations, stating: “If you’re elected as a leader, you must work. The people of Nairobi are suffering.”

    He accused the county of gross mismanagement, citing the Nairobi County-Kenya Power waste scandal.

    “The governor who’s supposed to clean up Nairobi is dumping waste at Stima Plaza. He’s disposing of sewage in the city centre. Is this someone we can even sit down with?”

    Owino described county health facilities as “death traps”. “There are no medicines—just Piriton and paracetamol because county workers have opened their own pharmacies outside hospitals.”

    He called for community-based solutions, including involving youth in waste collection.

    “If you want a real solution to Nairobi’s garbage problem, give the job to the estate youth. Green Army workers are supposed to earn Sh30,000 monthly but only get Sh18,000. Where does the rest go?”

    Lang’ata MP Phelix Odiwuor, popularly known as Jalang’o, said Sakaja’s leadership lacks inclusion and transparency. “Leadership is about teamwork. For the governor to work effectively, he must involve MPs.”

    Jalang’o also criticised Nairobi’s infrastructure, particularly street lighting. “Nairobi shuts down at 8 pm—it’s just darkness everywhere. For every working streetlight before the expressway, I’ll give you Sh1,000.”

    He opposed increasing county allocations, questioning their use. “We passed laws, allocated funds, and they squandered everything. Now you want us to give them more to steal again?”

    He also stressed that water distribution is a devolved function, squarely under the governor’s responsibility.

    Embakasi West MP Mark Mwenje demanded a complete overhaul of Nairobi’s planning systems. “Nairobi needs a proper master plan. We must bring in experts to reorganise the city. Right now, waste collection is being handled by the NYS.”

    Kibra MP Peter Orero argued that MPs, as the most informed about their constituencies, should be involved in service delivery decisions.

    “MPs know their areas best. Every constituency should have a fully functional hospital with adequate medicine, proper roads, and drainage.”

    Starehe MP Amos Mwago said exclusion from county functions had derailed progress.

    “We’ve been sidelined. I don’t see how, in the remaining two years, we can work together to achieve anything.”

    The MPs urged Governor Sakaja to adopt a more inclusive approach, warning that continued disregard for elected leaders would worsen Nairobi’s governance crisis.

    With two years left in his term, they said the time for excuses is over—Sakaja must either step up or face political consequences.

  • Questions Linger Over Sh12.5 Billion Revenue: Nairobi County Auditors Denied Access to NRS Records

    Questions Linger Over Sh12.5 Billion Revenue: Nairobi County Auditors Denied Access to NRS Records

    Auditors raise red flags as transparency concerns mount over Nairobi County’s financial reporting.

    Concerns have been raised over the accuracy of revenue collected by the Nairobi City County Government after external auditors revealed they have been denied access to the revenue collection system since Governor Johnson Sakaja assumed office.

    Appearing before the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) last week, the external auditors disclosed that they have been locked out of the Nairobi Revenue System (NRS), rendering them unable to conduct a comprehensive audit.

    The auditors expressed frustration over budget cuts by the executive, which they described as a deliberate effort to hinder their work. They also cited a poor working environment as an additional challenge.

    According to the auditors, they have been unable to verify the accuracy of the revenue figures announced by the county. They informed the committee that they had reached out to Governor Sakaja regarding the issue, but their efforts have yielded no response.

    “As auditors, we can only confirm the revenue declared by the county if we gain access to the system and use our expertise to evaluate it. We do not know the source of the revenue performance reports being issued by the county,” said Ndirangu Ngunjiri, an external auditor for the Nairobi City County Government.

    “We have sought the governor’s attention, but our attempts have been unsuccessful,” he added.

    The situation has led to a mass exodus of auditors, leaving the audit committee understaffed. Currently, there are only 23 auditors, far fewer than the required 47, making it impossible for the committee to fulfill its mandate.

    Boroughs and Administration County Executive Committee Member Stephen Gathuita Mwangi assured the committee that Governor Sakaja is committed to addressing the grievances of the external auditors.

    “We are committed to supporting the auditors and ensuring accountability. These matters can only be resolved if addressed by the governor,” Mwangi stated.

    The auditors’ revelations have cast doubt on the accuracy of the Sh12.5 billion reportedly collected by the county government in the last financial year.

    JLAC Chairman and Mugumoini MCA Jared Akama questioned how the county could declare revenue figures without allowing auditors access to the revenue collection system.

    “How can we confirm the accuracy of the figures declared by the county government? The auditors tasked with evaluating the system and providing an opinion cannot access the NRS and are being intimidated,” Akama said.

    The NRS remains shrouded in mystery for both Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) and city residents.

    In 2023, the Nairobi City County Assembly established a 13-member ad hoc committee to investigate alleged revenue losses at City Hall. Among the issues probed by the committee, led by Makongeni MCA and Majority Leader Peter Imwatok, was the ownership and operation of the Nairobi Revenue System (NRS).

    Despite spending millions of shillings on over 20 sittings in Nairobi, Mombasa, Naivasha, and even outside the country, the committee has yet to table its report. A year and a half later, its findings remain unknown to both Nairobians and the County Assembly.

    The report was expected to highlight weaknesses in the revenue collection system and recommend improvements, but its delay has only deepened concerns over transparency and accountability in City Hall.

  • “I Have Been Endorsed By God, There’s Nothing Wrong With Raila Endorsing Sakaja,” Babu Owino Says

    “I Have Been Endorsed By God, There’s Nothing Wrong With Raila Endorsing Sakaja,” Babu Owino Says

    Embakasi East MP, Babu Owino now says that there is nothing wrong with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga endorsing Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja for another term in the City County’s gubernatorial race.

    Speaking on Citizen TV, Babu said that he has been endorsed by God and the people of Kenya and the results can be seen from the recent poll by Infotrak Research that named him the best-performing legislator in Kenya.

    “When Baba (Raila Odinga) endorsed Sakaja as you are saying it,  there’s nothing wrong with that. Babu Owino has been endorsed by the Almighty God and Kenyans and you can see by the results,” he said.

    This comes amid interest and various public declarations by Babu that he will vie for Governor of Nairobi, in 2027.

    The Embakasi East MP went on to say that he is happy for Sakaja who is a young man like himself.

    He noted that their differences have never been personal but ideological because he is also a resident of the City County.

    “I am happy for my brother, Sakaja is a young man like myself, we might differ ideologically but nothing personal and we differ because I am also a resident of Nairobi who expects services, who pays taxes in Nairobi and should be served by the Governor like any other Nairobian.”

    The legislator insisted that Sakaja made promises to the people of Nairobi and he must keep them.

    “As a leader in Nairobi, I must push him to ensure he delivers to Nairobians because he promised and he must deliver.”

    This comes after Raila urged Nairobi leaders to remain united as he entrusted Governor Johnson Sakaja with the responsibility of leading the city’s political affairs in his absence.

    Referring to Sakaja as his son, Raila assured ODM members in the capital that they should remain steadfast while he is away, as the governor will oversee all political matters.

    “I want Nairobi to remain united and strong. My son here will take charge,” Raila said, pointing at Sakaja during a prayer meeting at the Bomas of Kenya.

    Sakaja, a member of the ruling UDA party, attended the event, which was organised by women affiliated with ODM.

    The directive by Raila has been interpreted by many quotas as an endorsement of Sakaja ahead of the 2027 general elections.

    Other than Babu, Westlands MP, Tim Wanyonyi is also eyeing the Capital’s gubernatorial seat after having been pushed to shelve his ambition in 2022 in support of Polycarp Igathe.

  • Sakaja Hints at Joining ODM as Raila Assigns Him to Take Charge in His Absence

    Sakaja Hints at Joining ODM as Raila Assigns Him to Take Charge in His Absence

    Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja on Monday hinted at plans to defect from President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party to Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party ahead of the next election.

    Sakaja made the revelation during a prayer event in support of Odinga, who is vying for the African Union Commission Chairperson seat.

    In what appeared to be a clear endorsement of Raila, the ODM leader urged Nairobi leaders to remain united and entrusted Governor Sakaja with the responsibility of overseeing the city’s political affairs in his absence.

    Referring to Sakaja as his son, Raila assured ODM members in the capital that they should remain steadfast while he is away, as the governor would take charge of political matters.

    “I want Nairobi to remain united and strong. My son here will take charge,” Raila said, pointing at Sakaja during the prayer meeting at the Bomas of Kenya.

    Senior ODM Party officials, including Chairperson Gladys Wanga and Makadara MP George Aladwa, who also serves as the Nairobi ODM chairperson, praised Sakaja for collaborating closely with the Orange Party.

    “I want to thank, in a special way, our Governor of Nairobi for standing with our party despite not being a member. I kindly urge him to leave UDA and join ODM so that we can move forward together,” said Aladwa.

    Governor Wanga, on her part, thanked Sakaja for his role in organizing the event and acknowledged his alignment with ODM, which enjoys significant support in Nairobi County.

    “We thank Sakaja for standing with ODM in Nairobi. As Aladwa has said, I urge Sakaja to seriously consider joining us,” Wanga stated.

    Sakaja, a member of the ruling UDA party, attended the event, which was organized by women affiliated with ODM. During the gathering, he announced plans to convene a meeting with ODM women leaders in Nairobi to clarify his political direction ahead of the 2027 elections.

    Quoting a Swahili proverb, Sakaja said, “Dalili ya mvua ni mawingu na mwenye macho haambiwi tazama.” Loosely translated, this means, “The signs of rain are heavy clouds, and those with eyes do not need to be reminded to see them. I must respond to the requests made to me. We are together in this.”

    Potential Fallout Within ODM?

    Should Sakaja join ODM as suggested, his decision could spark internal tensions within the party. Three weeks ago, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino expressed dissatisfaction with Sakaja’s leadership, accusing him of poor governance and urging ODM not to support him.

    Speaking during a public address, Babu criticized the governor’s performance, citing alleged corruption, inefficiency in service delivery, and a lack of progress in key areas.

    “Nairobi deserves better. Despite a budget of over Sh40 billion, the county is collecting less revenue and performing poorly in service delivery. Governor Sakaja’s leadership has failed to meet the expectations of Nairobi residents,” Babu stated.

    The outspoken MP also addressed rumors about Raila potentially endorsing Sakaja for a second term.

    “Baba should know better. Sakaja has always opposed Raila’s presidency and consistently voted for his opponents since 2007. He is not one of us; he comes with dirty hands,” Babu said, alluding to Sakaja’s past political affiliations.

    Babu further accused Sakaja of engaging in public relations stunts, including accompanying Raila on foreign trips as part of his campaign for the African Union Chairperson seat.

    “These trips are mere theatrical PR gimmicks. Nairobians need a leader focused on solving local issues, not globetrotting for photo ops,” he added.

    The MP hinted at growing discontent among political aspirants eyeing the Nairobi gubernatorial seat in the next election.

    “Over 20 candidates are preparing to challenge the current regime because of its failures. Baba should recognize those who genuinely love and support him, like myself,” Babu said.

    This public critique comes amid mounting concerns over Nairobi’s governance, with residents expressing frustration over persistent issues such as waste management, insecurity, and stalled projects.

  • ODM MCAs Renew Beef With Governor Sakaja: Is Impeachment on the Horizon?

    ODM MCAs Renew Beef With Governor Sakaja: Is Impeachment on the Horizon?

    Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja is facing increasing pressure from members of the Nairobi County Assembly (MCAs) affiliated with the ODM party, who are actively plotting his impeachment.

    The MCAs have devised a plan that involves promoting his deputy, James Muchiri, to a cabinet position. This move would allow them to appoint a new deputy, creating a strategic pathway to facilitate the governor’s removal from office.

    As frustrations over poor county services and stalled projects rise, the MCAs are united in their call for accountability, making it clear that they are prepared to take serious action against Sakaja if their demands are not met.

    ODM MCAs Plotting Governor Sakaja Impeachment Over Unfulfilled Promises and Growing Frustrations

    Sakaja has navigated previous impeachment attempts by aligning with prominent figures such as former PM Raila Odinga, President William Ruto, and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi. However, some Nairobi County Assembly members are increasingly frustrated with the lack of quality services and stalled development projects.

    During a press conference, Deputy Minority Leader Waithera Chege and Kileleshwa’s Robert Alai accused Sakaja of incompetence. They highlighted issues like chaotic public transport, land grabbing by private developers, poor drainage, and inadequate garbage collection.

    “The city is in chaos. We have met with the governor multiple times, but nothing has changed,” Alai stated, underscoring the lack of progress on development projects, especially in healthcare.

    Details from Auditor-General’s Report

    According to the Auditor-General’s report from June 30, 2023, Nairobi County has stalled projects worth Sh1.36 billion. The report specifically mentions that many of these stalled projects are hospitals, revealing failures in critical healthcare infrastructure.

    One contractor received Sh869 million to build three health facilities, but none were completed. Inspections in late September showed the sites in poor condition. Despite this, the same contractor was awarded another project worth Sh344.1 million, which also stalled after Sh165 million was paid.

    Additionally, suppliers who provided services to the county have not been paid, raising concerns about revenue collection.

    Concerns Over Revenue Collection and Accountability

    MCAs expressed their frustrations about unclear revenue collection practices within the county government. “Revenue is collected at Riverside, but no one knows who is actually collecting it,” Alai said. They accused the governor of focusing on public relations and blocking oversight from the MCAs.

    Chege mentioned that county officials involved in transferring public land to private developers will be held accountable. She highlighted suspicious changes in contract agreements that potentially favor the developers over the county.

    Assembly Speaker Kennedy Ng’ondi rebutted claims that he blocks oversight efforts. He argued that the MCAs who complain lack an understanding of their roles.

    As frustration mounts, the ward representatives urge President Ruto and Raila Odinga to intervene and address the issues affecting Nairobi’s residents. Governor Sakaja did not respond to requests for comment.

  • Sakaja’s Allies Accused of Taking Bribes in Health Tender Scandal

    Sakaja’s Allies Accused of Taking Bribes in Health Tender Scandal

    Nairobi City Hall has been thrust into the spotlight following revelations of fierce battles over multi-billion shilling tenders within the health department.

    Allegations of irregularities, favoritism, and corruption are at the heart of the controversy, with various parties accusing key officials of manipulating the tendering process for personal gain.

    Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja’s allies allegedly took bribes to award a lucrative health tender. The tender, worth billions, was eventually canceled by the Public Procurement Administrative Board.

    The tender was initially awarded to Jubilee Health Insurance, which led to political upheaval, including the removal of then-acting county secretary Patrick Analo.

    Health Tender Scandal
    The health scandal threatens to unravel deeper issues within City Hall, where allegations of graft have plagued other sectors as well. [Photo: Flickr]

    Political Shake-up After Health Tender Scandal

    The controversial tender may have cost Analo his position. He was replaced by Godfrey Akumali, a man accused of frequently drinking on the job.

    Akumali, who claims to be Luhya but is originally from Nyandarua, is rumored to be a heavy drinker, with Viceroy Brandy as his preferred choice. Analo, an alumnus of Makerere University, remained as chief officer of urban planning and development despite the changes.

    The tender issue also triggered a cabinet reshuffle by Governor Sakaja, affecting five key county executives.

    Stephen Mwangi was moved to the boroughs, administration, and personnel docket, replacing Patrick Mbogo. Other major moves included Brian Mulama, Ibrahim Nyangoya, and Rosemary Kariuki, all reassigned to new roles.

    Controversy Around the Cancelled Health Insurance Tender

    The health cover expired on July 28, 2024. Afterward, Analo instructed county staff to seek medical care at county facilities like Mama Lucy, Mbagathi, and Pumwani while a new tender was processed.

    Kenya Alliance Insurance, unhappy with the tender process, appealed the decision, leading to the cancellation of the award given to Jubilee Insurance.

    Initially, Jubilee Insurance won the Sh1.5 billion tender for comprehensive medical insurance and group life cover.

    Six companies, including AAR and Madison Insurance, bid for the tender. However, Kenya Alliance contested the decision, arguing that their tender was unfairly disqualified due to technicalities involving audited accounts.

    After a review, the procurement board sided with Kenya Alliance, canceling Jubilee’s contract on September 6, 2024.

    This scandal has left the Nairobi County government scrambling to finalize a new medical cover as it faces mounting criticism over the mishandling of the tender.