Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has now released tens of payment receipts and account statements to show that he has been keeping records of his expenditure.
This comes after Auditor General Edward Ouko’s report said the governor may have lost money through payments to contractors and ‘unexplained withdrawals’.
Governor Sonko has strongly denied the allegations, saying he has records for all his expenditure and that of the county government. He has vowed to appear before the Senate and defend his record of fighting corrupt city cartels.
In disproving the allegations of the auditor that Sonko had been enjoying a ‘confidential budget’ of Sh96 million, Sonko demonstrated that the money being referred to was for normal operations for his office, which had been disbursed three times.
In the first year, the Nairobi MCAs set aside Sh4 million, but the governor did not touch it. In a supplementary budget, the MCAs added him Sh46 million, which also remains untouched. The same MCAs are the ones raising questions about the money they allocated.
Sonko says the reason he did not touch the combined Sh50 ‘confidential budget’ was because he has been keeping records of all his expenditure, and does not need the confidential allocation.
“It is still intact (Sh50 billion budget), in the Treasury. I have not touched even a coin,” Mr Sonko said.
“I don’t see the reason why I should be given another confidential budget when I have not touched the previous one — even a coin,” he said, adding that the money should be used to address some of the most pressing issues facing the residents of Nairobi today.
And now, to prove his point, the county boss has exclusively released more than 50 receipts, pages of bank statements and tens of documentary proof, which he received while working on the famous Nairobi Beautification Project.
The receipts, some of which are for purchases of good worth as little as Sh1,300, paint the governor as a particularly meticulous individual – contrary to popular belief – who is keen with keeping records of how every coin is spent.
Here are some of the receipts:
He says it is corrupt cartels who are fighting back, after he sealed looting loopholes at City Hall.