. . Friday, July 5, 2024 Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja had a very rough time yesterday after Senators cornered him over the Sh16 billion garbage tender that he allegedly awarded to President William Ruto s crony, Oscar Sudi, and others. While appearing before the Senate Committee on Finance and Budget, Senators gave Sakaja a 14day ultimatum to explain how wastecollecting companies received tenders. He was instructed to provide a comprehensive written explanation within 14 days. In the directive, the governor was instructed to submit evidence of the work done to necessitate payment of such magnitude. Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna while commenting on the matter, termed the issuance of the tenders to the said companies illegal. The ODM Secretary General called for an investigation into the matter, claiming the companies were part of the syndicate siphoning taxpayers' money. This is criminality, it is absolute criminality, you will see from the documents provided that a company is charging the county twice for the same service, so the concern that Senator Khalwale is raising is very valid, Senator Sifuna argued. "Governor you must explain to us, a correlation between these pending bills especially in the area of solid waste management and the problems we are going through right now as a county because there are a lot of complaints that the county government is not collecting garbage.". Sakaja while defending himself urged the committee to summon the officials of the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services NMS to account for Ksh16 billion in pending bills. The Kenyan DAILY POST. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nairobi Governor Sakaja faces scrutiny over a Sh16 billion garbage tender awarded to President Ruto's associate and others. Senators give him a 14-day ultimatum to explain the tender awards, requesting evidence of work done to justify payments. Senator Sifuna deems the tenders illegal, calling for an investigation into taxpayer money misuse. Governor Sakaja defends by urging summoning NMS officials to account for pending bills.