The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has taken over collection of revenue in Nairobi County, in what might be a coup against embattled Governor Mike Sonko.<\/p>\n
Collection of revenues, which includes parking and trading licence fees, is perhaps the most critical functions of the county administration.This follows last week\u2019s agreement between Governor Sonko and President Uhuru Kenyatta for the national government to take over city\u2019s leadership from the flamboyant governor, aimed at averting a crisis at City Hall.\u00a0Yesterday, the county government appointed the tax authority to be in charge of all revenue collection.<\/p>\n
\u201cPursuant to Article 5.5 of the Deed of Transfer of Function from the Nairobi City County Government to the National Government gazette February 25, 2020 and in accordance with section 160 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012…the Nairobi City County Government appoints the Kenya Revenue Authority as the principal agent for overall revenue collection for all county revenue for a period of twenty four months, with effect from March 16, 2020\u201d read part of the Gazette Notice signed by Finance Executive Allan Igambi.<\/p>\n
The deal is a mouth-watering opportunity for KRA to get its hands on such data as the number of single business licences issued by the county government after KRA rolled out the turnover tax which will be levied at three per cent of revenue on businesses that make less than Sh5 million a year.\u00a0The taxman might also get information on land rate payments that could help nab landlords not paying taxes.<\/p>\n
A deal signed at State House last week by Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa and Sonko and overseen by Uhuru saw the national government take over health, transport, public works and planning and development services.This came days after ODM ward representatives tabled a notice of motion to impeach Sonko. The MCAs listed 16 grounds for removal of the governor, including abuse of office and irregular procurement.<\/p>\n
Among the said crimes were the irregular award of a Sh1.5 billion tender for construction of stadiums.Sonko has also been accused of unilaterally sacking staff through social media without fair hearing and failing to name a deputy governor despite an advisory by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Poor systems<\/strong><\/p>\n Former Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo had proposed that counties\u00a0 contract KRA as their revenue collection agents.\u201cCounties are collecting less revenue than their potential, and this is because of poor systems and leakages,\u201d she said in August last year.<\/p>\n \u201cCounties should consider using KRA to collect taxes on their behalf.\u201dAccording to reports, there is an impending reshuffle where county executives and heads of departments will be retained, but deployed to other functions.Heads of departments affected by the reshuffle will now report directly to the national government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has taken over collection of revenue in Nairobi County, in what might be a coup against embattled Governor Mike Sonko. Collection of revenues, which includes parking and trading licence fees, is perhaps the most critical functions of the county administration.This follows last week\u2019s agreement between Governor Sonko and President Uhuru […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8],"tags":[412,394,626,1787],"class_list":["post-3897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-kra","tag-mike-sonko","tag-nairobi-county","tag-nairobi-takeover"],"yoast_head":"\n