How Sakaja is planning to raise 44.6 billion without new taxes
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja (Left) and County Chief Executive Committee Member for Finance and Economic Planning Charles Kerich at a past event.
Nairobi County Government presented its budgetary allocation of Sh44.6 billion for the 2025/26 financial year, the highest among the counties since devolution began.
This, according to County Executive Committee member for Finance and Planning Charles Kerich, includes both national government transfers grants and own-source revenues.
From the projection, the national government is expected to transfer Sh22 billion, which includes grants, while the county has projected to collect its Own-Source Revenues of Sh20.977 billion.
Hospitals Facility Improvement Financing (FIF) is expected to attract Sh1.234 billion, and Liquor Licensing Sh400 million.
Mr Kerich maintained that Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration will not impose new taxes on its people during the financial year, but will explore ways to seal revenue loopholes.
“We shall not be increasing any fees and charges but will concentrate on widening the tax base in order to target areas which have not been fully optimised on revenue collection,” Mr Kerich said.
The county will also embark on cleaning of revenue data to establish the correct amount of outstanding account receivables and establish robust recovery measures.
Further, Mr Kerich informed the house that going forward, the county will continue to cascade revenue targets and ensure revenue compliance, inspections and enforcement in all sub-counties.
However, for the second financial year in office, Governor Sakaja has failed to hit the target when it comes to Own-Source Revenue, a matter that at one point attracted the attention of the house, raising questions about the revenue collection system.
In the last financial year, the county had set a target of generating Sh19.5 billion from the, local taxes and fees.
However, by the end of the financial year, the county had only managed to raise Sh13.8 billion, leaving a shortfall of about Sh5.7 billion.
This did not stop the governor from praising his team, saying his administration had set a new record by surpassing what previous administrations had collected.
“It’s up from last year’s Sh2.8 billion, a strong Sh1 billion increase. With this momentum, we can aim even higher. It’s possible when we all do our part as government and as citizens,” Governor Sakaja said.
As locals shift focus on the next step that the county government will take to raise such an amount, Mr Kerich stated that they have mapped areas that will enable them to hit the target.
“We will continue with the exercise of mapping revenue streams and setting targets for each stream, Sub-County, Ward and Individuals. This will increase revenue base, which will ultimately increase actual revenue and form a logical basis for setting targets,” he said.
He revealed that the county intends to start regularisation of unauthorised developments and imposition of penalties to attract additional revenue of Sh5 billion.
Nairobi landowners should also expect the county to knock on their doors soon as it announces plans to embark on formalising rates based on sectional properties titles, which target individual houses in blocks of apartments.
During the budget reading, the CEC revealed that the county lacks requisite legislation for key revenue streams, a matter that he said has weakened the administration and mobilisation of revenue collection.