Uasin Gishu County records rise in revenue after NYS steps in

By Mark Kapchanga

Uasin Gishu, Kenya: Uasin Gishu County government’s revenues have significantly increased following a robust plan to seal parking fee leakages.

Finance Executive Shadrack Sambai told The Standard there had been fast growth in revenues in the last part of last year as compared to when the county government took over from the former Eldoret Municipal Council.

“As at December 2013, our collections had appreciated by Sh5.23 million as compared to the same period in 2012. We expect to collect Sh18 million by the end of January compared to Sh9.2 million raised a year ago,” Mr Sambai said.

In November last year, the county deployed the National Youth Service (NYS) to provide reinforcement in the collection of fees in bus parks, slaughter houses and street parking which were seen to be fertile grounds for revenue leaks.

He attributed the double upsurge in the income to the NYS which has played a key role in the enforcement to ticketing and revenue collection and remission.

Sambai said the county collected Sh407,710 at the wholesale market in November. This went up to Sh595,140 in December, representing a 46 per cent rise. During the same month, main bus park revenues went up by Sh526,620 to Sh3.6 million.

At the Sosiani matatu park, the proceeds increased from Sh1.46 million in November to Sh2.08 million a month later, translating to a 42 per cent rise.

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However, the street parking realised a marginal increase of only three per cent from Sh5.09 million to Sh5.25 million.

“In the slaughter house management unit, our collections rose by 29 per cent in a month to Sh565,300. On average, these key revenue zones represented a 15.45 per cent rise in collections,” he said in an interview.

Documents accessed by The Standard show that the revenues went up by 76.3 per cent to Sh12.085 million within a year.

“The trend is an indication that there has been massive theft of public money in these spots,” said Martin Cheruiyot, an Nairobi analyst in public finance.

Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago said he is determined to rid the region of corrupt individuals. “The NYS has the capacity to execute the tasks effectively,” he said.