Nairobi collects more revenue than 30 counties combined

Nairobi County continues to dominate its peers in revenue generation, collecting 22 percent of the own revenues reported by all the devolved government units in the last financial year.

Nairobi collected Sh8.16 billion compared to Sh36.8 billion generated by all 47 counties, according to a report by the National Treasury on financial statements in the 2022/23 fiscal year.

The report exposes disparities in own revenue collections with the 30 lowest performing counties contributing to only about a fifth (21 percent) of the total revenues.

This points to the concentration of economic opportunities in the capital and its surroundings, leaving much of the expansive country with little to contribute to the economy.

In 2021/22, Nairobi collected Sh7.6 billion, which was more than the combined collection of 32 counties that generated Sh7.5 billion.

In 2022/23, the 30 lowest performers collected between Sh46.8 million and Sh593.8 million.

They include Wajir (Sh46.8 million), Tana River (Sh59 million), Garissa (Sh82 million), Isiolo (Sh91 million), Nyamira (Sh97 million), Mandera (Sh123 million), Vihiga (Sh127 million), West Pokot (Sh128 million) and Marsabit (Sh142 million).

Embu (Sh593.8 million), Kirinyaga (Sh552 million), Nyandarua (Sh491 million), Homa Bay (Sh491 million), Kericho (Sh477 million) and Nandi (Sh199 million), are also listed among counties whose combined collection was surpassed by Nairobi.

Read: Only four counties meet own-source revenue target

Nandi, however, disputes its reported collection, saying the figure captured by the Treasury, and the Controller of Budget (COB) was not representative of all the own revenues during the year.

“Analysis of the report indicated this was actually underscored because some lines of revenues were not included. These include Sh171,354,269 being funds collected and spent under the Facility Improvement Fund Act, 2019. Similarly, another Sh12,047,051 was not reported. These, summed up, takes us to Sh381,701,320,” said Nandi County Executive Committee Member for Finance, Hillary Serem.

“We have since raised the same with the CoB who encouraged us to ensure self-reporting is always done accurately and timely,” he added.

Analysis of the own revenues performance shows that collections for 10 counties dropped, compared to their collections during the previous financial year.

Nakuru’s reported the highest drop of 50 percent to Sh1.6 billion, compared to the Sh3.3 billion it collected in 2021/22. Nakuru governor Susan Kihika did not respond to our questions on factors that could have affected the revenue performance, and strategies to boost the same in the current financial year and moving forward.

Nakuru was followed by Kisumu and Nyamira whose collections dropped by 42 percent each, to Sh695 million and Sh97 million respectively.

On the other hand, counties with the biggest improvement in own revenue collections were Narok, which more than doubled from Sh1.2 billion to Sh2.9 billion and Samburu, which increased from Sh112 million to Sh226 million.

Kiambu collected nearly Sh1 billion more, increasing from Sh2.7 billion in 2021/22 to Sh3.6 billion.

“We improved because we are running a government where commitment and integrity is a must. But even if there was an improvement throughout the period, this is hardly a number we can applaud given that it was during election season and there were transitional impacts,” said Kiambu governor, Kimani Wamatangi.

The governor, however, noted that even with the improvement, the county lost 30 percent of its own revenues to corruption activities within its workforce, noting that actual collections could have surpassed Sh5 billion. He said the outlook for the year ending June 2024 is for the county to collect Sh7.9 billion, which will be more than a third of its Sh22 billion budget.

Read: Nairobi own source revenue grows 17pc

With the Sh3.6 billion collections, Kiambu was the second after Nairobi, but it was still less than half what Nairobi recorded.

In total, seven counties collected more than Sh1 billion each from their own sources in 2022/23, down by one (Kisumu) from the performance in 2021/22.

→(email protected)