Governor Sakaja initially rejected Sh500 million budget for his official residence

When Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja assumed office last year, he said there was no need to allocate Sh500 million to construct his official residence. He said he already had a place to live and that the money could be better used for other priorities, such as building markets and creating jobs.

However, the county’s Sh42.3 billion budget for the 2023/24 financial year allocated Sh290 million for constructing the governor’s official residence. This is a reduction from the initial proposal of Sh500 million.

The idea of constructing a governor’s house was derived from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) as a deliberate move to end the monthly house allowances given to governors. In July last year, the SRC stopped house allowances for governors, deputy governors, and county chairmen to encourage them to build permanent houses for the three officials.

According to the SRC’s 2017 guidelines, Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu governors were given monthly house allowances of Sh200,000, while governors of other counties were given Sh100,000. All 47 counties were given four years in 2015 to build residences for the top three county government positions, a plan to end the house allowances.

It is unclear why the county assembly approved the Sh290 million allocation for the governor’s official residence, despite Sakaja’s initial rejection of the proposal. The assembly speaker, Kennedy Ngondi, has said that they are struggling to acquire a plot of land to build the speaker’s house.

It remains to be seen whether the governor will move into the official residence once it is built.