The Nairobi County Government has abruptly increased it’s revenue collection from 1st of September after newly elected governor Mike Sonko ordered for increased automation of cash collections across the City.
According to a leaked internal memo at City Hall, a total of Sh 532 million has been collected by the Nairobi County Government from 1st September to 15th September 2017 which has been attributed to the automation of revenue collection in some revenue streams.
Early this month, Sonko issued a directive to County staff not to accept cash payments at City Hall.
According to Sonko, cash payments have facilitated corruption, leading to loss of revenue after reports indicated that the County Government used to collect an average of Sh7 million per day during the tenure of former Governor Evans Kidero.
He said the county government would make it mandatory for those paying for services to do so through the eJijiPay service.
Kidero had dismissed Sonko’s high revenue collection saying it was not a miracle for Nairobi County to collect millions in the first week of a month.
Kidero further defended his track record saying it is normal for the county to collect large sums of money at the beginning of a month adding seasonal parking tickets fees for more than 30,000 matatus in Nairobi are paid in the first week of the month.
Speaking just days after he took over, Sonko however indicated that the county’s revenue had gone up by more than 100 per cent in two days due to automation of revenue collection, increasing to Sh38.2 million from Sh7 million that was being collected by Kidero’s regime daily
