Two officials from Nairobi City County, a revenue clerk and an intern officer are expected to be arraigned tomorrow after they were apprehended todays by officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (Eacc) for allegedly diverting parking fees revenue by manipulating the system
Interestingly, the new revelation came even after the Nairobi County Assembly ad hoc committee on revenue collection was taken rounds after it emerged shadowy figures are in control of the revenue collection system for the county.
There were counter-claims that those responsible but unnamed individuals are domiciled at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and officials from the Interior and National Administration Ministry.
The two, Daniel Odidi Ganje; the Officer-In-Charge of the Data Office at St. Peter Cleavers Revenue offices in Starehe Sub-County, and John Gachagua Mburu, a Student from a local university attached at the said revenue offices who is an intern officer were arrested after from allegations stemmed of them of redirecting county revenue.
Odidi and Mburu allegedly manipulated the Nairobi Revenue Services portal to falsely show full payment of fees.
The scheme involved asking a client, who came to pay annual parking fees for his commercial vehicles totaling Sh45,000, to transfer the amount to one of the officer’s private bank accounts.
In return, the two had promised a reduced payment than the set.
To prove the feasibility of this scam, the suspects entered the complainant’s vehicle registration details into the revenue portal, which then falsely indicated full payment.
This deception was confirmed when the complainant saw that the portal displayed his parking fees as fully paid for the year, despite not making any actual deposit.
This incident highlights a broader issue of revenue diversion in various county governments, significantly affecting their financial performance, often worse than the municipalities they replaced.
Further the arrest comes when the Adhoc committee on revenue decline was previously told that the county has been losing revenue through system failure.
Motorists have been accused of being the most notorious for reversing the money.
“Now and then we experience some downfalls in the systems and parking is the greatest casualty of this. Some of the parking fees are supposed to be collected immediately, especially around the banks and malls but when the system is down, we lose a lot of money because the motorists park for a few minutes or say a short period and leave after transactions. The vehicles can hence not be clamped because you cannot see what is going on in the system.” Lucy Kanini, the officer in charge of loading zones explained.
