County Attorney was not involved in NMS takeover of city, court told

Former Nairobi County Attorney Lydia Kwamboka testifies at the Milimani Anti-Corruption Court in Nairobi during the hearing of former Governor Mike Sonko's Sh20 million graft case, on October 6, 2025. [Nancy Gitonga, Standard]

Former Nairobi County Attorney Lydia Kwamboka has revealed that the transfer of key functions from the Nairobi County Government to the national government in 2020 was executed by the executive without consulting the county's legal office.

Testifying before Milimani Anti-Corruption Court Magistrate Charles Ondieki, Kwamboka stated that her office, the principal legal adviser to the county during Governor Mike Sonko's tenure, was completely excluded from the drafting and signing of the legal instruments that established the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), as required in law.

"The transfer of functions was a constitutional and legal process, but I can confirm that the County Attorney's Office did not participate in either the drafting or the execution of the transfer instruments," she told the court.

"The documents were prepared and executed between the Office of the Attorney General, without any participation from the County Attorney's Office. My office was neither invited nor consulted." Kwamboka, who served as the county's top legal officer from 2018 to September 2023, said she only learnt of the transfer after it had been finalized and publicly announced.

"I was not invited to any meetings, I did not draft or review any of the instruments of transfer, and I was not present at the signing ceremony," she told the court.

"It was purely a national government process handled by the Attorney General and the Governor's office."

She says that to date, she and the county government are clueless about the contents of the agreement that transferred part of the county functions to NMS.

Under Article 189 of the Constitution and the County Governments Act, any transfer of functions between the national and county governments must be negotiated and agreed upon through a legally binding instrument, prepared with the advice of both legal offices.

But according to Kwamboka, this procedure was sidestepped in the Nairobi case, leaving the County Attorney's Office out of the picture.

"As the County Attorney, I expected to be involved since the law designates my office as the principal legal adviser and custodian of county legal affairs," she said.

The transfer, which took place in February 2020, saw four key county functions - health, transport, public works, and planning - handed over to the newly-created NMS under the national government.

Kwamboka made the revelations while testifying as a defence witness for former Governor Sonko, who is battling 11 corruption-related charges linked to a Sh20 million payment from Web Tribe Limited, the firm that managed the city's electronic revenue system.

However, Kwamboka said the revenue collection contract between the county government and Web Tribe Limited, trading as Jambopay, now at the centre of Sonko's graft trial, was a legacy of the Evans Kidero's administration.

She told the court that the Web Tribe contract had been executed during Kidero's tenure, long before Sonko came into office.

"When I assumed office in 2018, the Web Tribe contract was already in place. I never drafted, reviewed, or signed any contract between Web Tribe and the County Government of Nairobi," she said.

"That contract was done and executed during Governor Kidero's tenure. Sonko simply inherited it."

The lawyer said that Web Tribe's performance came under scrutiny when Sonko took office.

"The CEC for Finance tabled a Cabinet memo to review the company's operations, and after deliberation, we agreed to terminate their engagement and seek a new service provider."

"If Sonko had a personal interest in Web Tribe, he would have opposed the Cabinet decision to terminate the contract, yet he supported it."

At the same time, former Nairobi County Finance Executive Allan Esabwa Igambi also testified in the case, claiming that Sonko's ouster was planned and executed from State House.

Mr Esabwa said he was summoned to State House by then Solicitor General Njee Muturi and instructed to "find a way of fixing Sonko" to facilitate his removal from office.

"The removal of Sonko from office was ordered from above," Igambi testified.