Counties

Sonko defends illegal secret budget dating back to 1996

sonko

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has defended his multimillion-shilling secret budget that was declared illegal, saying his predecessors enjoyed similar benefits.

The Senate heard that the expenditure had been approved by the City Council’s Finance Committee in 1996 following a request by the Director City Inspectorate.

The monthly non-accountable imprest would be used for sourcing information on investigation matters concerning thefts, forgeries and fraud in the whole Council, City Hall said.

This comes days after Auditor- General Edward Ouko said only the national government is allowed by law to incur confidential expenditure and on items that touch on security, defense or international relations.

City Hall’s Legal and Justice Committee revealed last week that the governor has been enjoying Sh96 million “confidential expenditures” annually since he came into office in 2017

“Since then, this has been the practice, although with periodic review of the amount and broadening of the purpose,” Mr Sonko told Senate’s County Public Accounts and Investments Committee (CPAIC).

Mr Ouko declared a Sh14.4 million confidential expenditure by the governor and his deputy in the year to June illegal.

The County Assembly approves the secret budget as a vote head under the office of the governor.

“The three sub sectors under the office of the governor that are allocated the vote are investigation, disaster management and security compliance,” Mr Sonko said.