Nairobi governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko had a tough time explaining how public funds were spent during a road beautification project.
The road in question is the Uhuru Highway-Mombasa road, where the audit report indicates that Sh18.7 million was spent by the Nairobi county government.
According to documents tabled before the Senate County Public Accounts and Investment Committee by Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina, the beautification project was funded by the taxpayer’s money.
“The documents you have submitted to this committee indicate that the Nairobi county government paid for the beautification of the Uhuru Highway-Mombasa road to the tune of Sh18.7 million. This is what the records show,” said Mr. Kina.
However, Sonko reputed the claims saying that he funded the project through the use of his own money. He tabled bank statements on how he spent close to Sh20 million from his personal account for the purchase of grass, palms, and polls.
Sonko reiterated that the beautification project workers were paid through Equity Bank, and he did not pay cash at any particular time.
“I have tabled documents showing how I paid for the beautification of the Uhuru highway-Mombasa road project. This is a project I started, dubbed “Ng’arisha Jiji”. I have used Sh20 million,” said Sonko.
After tough grilling, the governor agreed that his officers might have taken advantage of his philanthropy to divert the money into their own pockets.
This followed after particular employee names were seen to appear differently in all the lists that were presented. On the other hand, others had different signatures.
Sonko said that he was going to launch an investigation into the same issue.
“I will launch an internal investigation on the issue and ascertain what exactly happened. I have used my personal money to fund the beautification project. I will share the findings with the committee and take the appropriate action,” Sonko said.