Machakos Governor suspends 36 officers over corruption allegations on trade licenses

Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti has suspended 36 officers for alleged corruption related to issuing of trade licenses.

Speaking during a press briefing on Monday, the governor lamented that the County continued to lose revenue through corruption despite investing heavily in digital revenue collection systems.

“Despite existing policies and controls fraudulent activities still continue to surface in revenue collection. These fraudulent activities include; underreporting of collected fees, diversion of funds, issuing of fake receipts and permits among others,” Governor Ndeti  said.

She said it was unfortunate that while the County had invested heavily in digital systems, some officers were colluding with members of the public to issue fake licenses adding that some members of the public were unaware that they were being conned.

The governor said she had taken the move to ‘name and shame’ the suspects and hand them over to investigating authorities so as to restore the integrity of public service and reassure the public of the steps being taken to fight corruption in the County.

“I am here to name and shame’ them for stealing from the public and hand them over to the relevant authorities for prosecution,” said Governor Ndeti.

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She directed the officers to hand over to their Chief Officers immediately and cease transacting on behalf of the government.

The governor said the culture of corruption must stop adding that the County government had bills and salaries to pay and will not be in a position to do so if all the revenue ended up in private accounts.

The officers are drawn from administration, revenue, Trade, ICT, Billing, Solid waste and cashier services.

On pending bills the governor said she inherited Ksh4.2 billion pending bills and a further Ksh3 billion owed to KRA which she had now progressively reduced.

She said the County continued to pay pending bills upon verification adding that the government will not pay any bills which were not verified.

The Controller of Budget had suspended the approval of Machakos County 2025/2026 budget pending provision of a clear plan on how the County would pay pending bills.

By Stephen Muthini

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