Sonko says the Nairobi Metropolitan Services is a fraud scheme

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has described the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) as a fraudulent scheme to shortchange Nairobians of their constitutional rights.

Sonko claims that the NMS is now acting as a parallel county government and he has instituted proceedings to terminate the transfer deed with the national government.

The embattled Governor on Tuesday skipped a grilling session of the Senate Health Committee and instead sent officials from his office including his chief advisor, county secretary and spokesman who were turned away.

The Senators insisted that sonko has to appear in person sending out summons for him to appear on Monday.

The Health Committee has raised concerns on the grandstanding between the Nairobi Metropolitan Services and the Nairobi County Government saying it has affected health service delivery in the county.

In his submission to the Senate, Sonko called NMS an illegal outfit that has fashioned itself as a parallel county government that has caused confusion in the execution of the transfer deed and in the actual service delivery to Nairobi residents.

Sonko in his unending proxy wars with the NMS claimed he has initiated the process of terminating the transfer deed that handed control of 5 critical functions to the national government.

The Nairobi Governor maintains that he has realised that the whole process had been designed to defraud him and Nairobians of their constitutional rights.

NMS is embroiled in turf wars with the city county accusing Governor Sonko’s administration of starving it of cash to operationalize medical service provision to the city, NMS laying claim of Ksh.127 million DANIDA donation, another Ksh.17 million received in April 2020 to support level 2 and 3 public facilities and Ksh.79 million  from the health ministry all sitting in the county governments accounts.

With health services having been transferred to the national government, NMS says it cannot access the funds as it is not a signatory to the accounts and the county government has refused to unlock the accounts

But in a rebuttal, Governor Sonko confirmed the existence of the cash in the county accounts, but dragged Treasury into the mess between NMS and the county government.

Sonko claims Treasury suspended the county’s health sector budget IFMIS operating system making it impossible for the city county’s accounts to process any payments for the transferred functions through IFMIS. The governor further claiming attempts to reach treasury to unlock the stalemate have been ignored.