Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration is once again in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, as a new audit report has exposed serious issues in how Nairobi County is spending public money.
The report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu for the financial year ending June 2024 reveals widespread irregularities across several programmes, especially the school feeding initiative known as Dishi na County and the county’s affordable housing projects.
These findings raise major questions about transparency and accountability under Sakaja’s leadership.
The Dishi na County programme, which was supposed to offer low-cost meals to schoolchildren, is one of the most troubling cases.
According to the report, the county government paid more money to the implementing organisation than it should have. Learners were already paying Sh5 per plate directly to the organisation.
Therefore, the county should have paid the remaining Sh20, not the full Sh25. Yet the county went ahead and paid Sh25 for each plate served.
This shows either poor financial planning or deliberate mismanagement. Worse still, the organisation was paid over Sh262 million during the period under review, even though they had already collected part of the cost from learners.
The county ended up double-paying for each meal, and no one seems to be taking responsibility.The situation gets even murkier when you look at the Sh145.7 million given by the Embassy of France to support the programme.
These funds were meant to help the most vulnerable children get nutritious meals. However, the Auditor General found that the county had no system in place to manage or track how the money was used.
There were no guidelines, no records, and no accountability. This means millions could have disappeared without a trace, and no one would be able to explain where the money went.
Another issue flagged is the construction of the Central Kitchen, where only two companies submitted tenders. The evaluation process was questionable, with evaluators failing to sign score sheets and one bidder unfairly disqualified.
The physical inspection of the kitchen at Toi Primary School revealed cracks on the structure, lack of water connection, and poor construction work, just a year after completion.
The kitchen at Mutuini Primary School was also feeding students from high schools, charging them Sh30 per plate, even though the programme was not intended for them.
This overreach shows a lack of proper monitoring and could be used to hide inflated numbers or misuse of funds.The audit also raises red flags on the county’s Sh31 billion affordable housing programme. The county entered into contracts for the construction of houses in Woodley and Kariobangi North but failed to get clearance from the Attorney General.
This step is legally required for any project worth more than Sh5 billion. Ignoring this rule points to either negligence or a deliberate attempt to bypass legal oversight.
If these contracts go wrong, Nairobians could end up losing billions with no legal fallback.Other questionable spending areas include executive scholarships, ward bursaries, insurance procurement, consultancy services, and street lighting projects.
All these were mentioned in the Auditor General’s report as areas with irregular spending, again pointing back to poor leadership and lack of financial discipline.
Instead of focusing on delivering services to Nairobians, Sakaja’s administration seems to be drowning in mismanagement and bad decisions.
While he continues to promise development and order, reports like this paint a different picture one of chaos, negligence, and disregard for the law.
The gaps in financial accountability are too big to ignore, and unless urgent corrective measures are taken, the people of Nairobi will continue to suffer under a government that seems more focused on appearances than results.
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