Sakaja stops using KRA to collect city revenue, announces new accounts

Nairobi residents seeking services from City Hall will be using new bank accounts after Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration on Thursday announced new revenue collection accounts.

Effective this month, City Hall has moved its revenue collection bank accounts from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to its own.

"This is to notify all our esteemed residents that from 1st August 2024, the county will fully transition from the previous KRA-denoted revenue collection banks accounts,” said a notice from City Hall.

In December 2023, City Hall’s chief cashier Shadrack Nyamai informed an ad hoc committee on revenue collection that the county was still using a bank account opened by the KRA, with its officers still being signatories.

Nyamai said KRA opened the accounts during the tenure of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and that they were never deactivated after NMS handed over its functions to the county government in September 2022.

He said the accounts were still being used despite the transfer of deeds and that he had never received a reconciliation of closing the accounts.

At the same time, City Hall has reminded residents that it operates a no-cash policy in revenue collection.

Besides, City Hall also advised customers to make their payments through the Nairobi City County Government Revenue collection accounts above once they obtain their invoices.

In the last financial year, Nairobi City County marked a milestone as its own source revenue hit Sh12. 8 billion. But this was against a target of Sh20.06 billion, which was part of the Sh40.7 billion county budget.

According to data from City Hall, Sh12.8 billion is the highest achieved by the county since devolution started.

In the current FY 2024-2025, the county has a budget of Sh43.56 billion, with Governor Sakaja's administration aiming to collect Sh21.06 billion in own source revenue.