Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has come under scrutiny for appointing seven advisors in his county government, roles that the Senate says overlap with the functions of County Executive Committee members.
This emerged during a session of the Senate County Public Accounts Committee, which was meeting officials from Nairobi County to interrogate the Office of the Auditor-General Kenya’s report for the 2024/2025 financial year.
Committee Chair Moses Kajwang’ questioned the need for the advisors, arguing that governors should rely on established county structures instead of outsourcing core functions.
“In this report, it emerges that the Nairobi Governor has advisors for every other docket where there’s a CEC and a chief officer. He’s got seven advisors to advise on things that would be handled by the substantive CECs and chief officers,” he stated.
“Sometimes you ask yourself, by the time someone decides to become a governor, they should understand the challenge before them rather than outsourcing their functions to advisors.”
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, a member of the committee, echoed the concerns and questioned the cost of maintaining the advisors amid the county’s financial strain.
“The advisors, on average, earn Ksh.203,000 each and therefore the extra advisors earned a total of Ksh.9.7 million; this is not pocket change,” he noted.
The governor failed to appear before the committee, prompting Kajwang’ to warn that continued absence by summoned governors could lead to adverse action.Â
He added that the committee would treat findings by oversight agencies as factual if the governors fail to appear and provide explanations.
“We will hand over the files to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. IEBC has a responsibility to ensure that persons running for office are persons who don’t have integrity issues or have ongoing investigations against them,” Kajwang’ pointed out.
“Just reminding the governors summoned that this is the last opportunity to come and explain yourselves and if you fail to do so, whatever irregularities or illegalities or violations of the law reported by the AG, we’ll take it as the truth and will demand action.”
Sakaja’s administration has also faced public backlash following recent flooding that left 69 people dead and hundreds displaced across the city.
The governor has further come under pressure over an Ksh.80 billion cooperation agreement with the national government aimed at improving Nairobi’s infrastructure and services.
While Sakaja has maintained that the deal is not a takeover similar to the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services, critics have raised concerns about the speed of its approval and the lack of meaningful public participation.
In a recent interview, Sakaja dismissed calls for his resignation, stating that he is prepared to make tough decisions to transform the county, even as questions persist over whether the measures are coming too late.
