Why Nairobi MCAs Call for Removal of Finance Boss Asha Abdi Amid Sakaja’s Impeachment Debate
By Francis Ingunzi
Nairobi County’s Chief Finance Officer, Asha Abdi, is facing a growing rebellion from Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) of both minority and majority wings who are demanding her removal from the finance docket amidst Governor Johnson Sakaja’s looming impeachment. Governor Sakaja’s whose impeachment flopped after the intervention of the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President William Ruto has been accused of corruption, gross misconduct among other irregularities.
Sakaja’s advisor Osman Khalif and Chief of Staff David Njoroge alongside Asha Abdi top the MCAs’ list of who should leave City Hall in order for service delivery to be felt by the City residents.
The calls for Asha’s ouster come as new details emerge linking her to fraudulent payments, a media cover-up scandal, being rogue to the City legislator and the flouting of public finance regulations.
The storm surrounding Abdi intensified after a senior editor at a leading daily newspaper was given a brand new car and millions of shillings in bribes to kill a corruption story involving the Nairobi City County finance department. The story, which was published online, had detailed fraudulent multimillion-shilling payments to “ghost suppliers,” with Abdi being heavily mentioned. Shockingly, the online publication was pulled down and the editor who authored the deletion resigned shortly thereafter to venture into private business.
This media scandal is just one of many troubling incidents tied to the finance department under Abdi’s leadership. Detectives and EACC sleuths who were investigating the matter were stunned to learn of the cover-up. The incident, sources say, highlights the lengths to which some officials are allegedly going to conceal financial malpractices at City Hall.
Abdi has long been under siege from a section of staff and MCAs who accuse her of gross violations of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015. She has been criticized for consistently ignoring recommendations from heads of departments and procurement officers regarding supplier payments.
Internal sources reveal that the Finance and Procurement departments at City Hall have been on the verge of a major internal conflict over suspected financial misconduct. Abdi is said to have fallen out with other senior accounting officers, including Martha Wambugu, and officers in the procurement department over irregular payments amounting to more than Sh30 million made between July and August 2023. These payments were reportedly made to dubious companies believed to have “supplied air.”
Further compounding her woes is the Deputy Governor, James Muchiri, who is reportedly frustrated with the rising number of unpaid genuine suppliers. Many of these suppliers, some hailing from the Mount Kenya region, have been forced to seek intervention from Deputy President Kithure Kindiki after their appeals to Abdi went unanswered. Abdi has been accused of favoring suppliers from her own community, especially those who secured lucrative tenders during the previous county regime.
The Chief Finance Officer is also under scrutiny for a scandal involving the payment of Sh1.4 billion to legal firms, despite advice from the legal department and County Attorney to pay only Sh60 million to firms whose work could be verified. This revelation led to the sacking of County Attorney Lydia Kwamboka, who had also reported that key files had been stolen from her office, raising suspicions of illicit payments to unknown firms.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Asset and Recovery Agency have now launched parallel investigations into the finance department’s activities. A letter from the DCI’s head of investigations bureau, David Birech, to Governor Sakaja and the county secretary, warned of an impending probe following a red flag raised by the Controller of Budget, Margaret Nyakang’o. The Controller of Budget declined to approve a Sh1.5 billion expenditure requisition from the county, citing a lack of supporting documents.
The DCI alleges that senior officials in the Sakaja administration, including Abdi and other sector heads, colluded with procurement officers, dubious contractors, and county treasury officials to fleece hundreds of millions from the county government. They were reportedly planning to make payments for fictitious supplies of building and road construction materials, and had submitted forged and backdated documents to the Controller of Budget’s office.
Detectives are also investigating a scheme where senior county officers may be colluding with top banks to divert county revenue. The county has accounts at Cooperative Bank, Equity Bank, and a “secret” account where revenue is allegedly siphoned off. KRA officials have confirmed that once revenue is collected, it is transferred to the County Revenue Fund (CRF), where Abdi and Martha Wambugu are the signatories.
