Mombasa is broke, executives say

What you need to know:

  • Unless it is allowed to tax the Kenya Ports Authority, it would be increasingly difficult to carry on, Finance Executive Hazel Koitaba and her Public Health counterpart, Ms Binti Omar said.
  • The official said Mombasa receives a similar allocation to Kwale County whose wage bill is only Sh1 billion. Ms Omar said the allocation does not favour Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu “which inherited many workers from the local authority system”.
  • The officials backed Governor Hassan Joho and Senator Omar Hassan’s calls to collect revenue from the port.

Mombasa County Government is in the red and unable to deliver services effectively, two executives have said.

Unless it is allowed to tax the Kenya Ports Authority, it would be increasingly difficult to carry on, Finance Executive Hazel Koitaba and her Public Health counterpart, Ms Binti Omar said.

Ms Koitaba said that the county receives about Sh4.5 billion from the devolved funds annually, Sh4 billion is spent on salaries and only Sh500,000 left for development.

Ms Omar said the county was grappling with debts and struggling to deliver basic services. They did not say how much the county collects on its own. The two executives were addressing a press conference at the Public Health offices in Mombasa on Thursday.

“For two years, we have been juggling to make ends meet,” Ms Omar said.

“The system of distribution of resources in the devolution system is unfair. Money is shared out according to population and other unrealistic perimeters, not on the basis of each county’s responsibilities,” she said.

The official said Mombasa receives a similar allocation to Kwale County whose wage bill is only Sh1 billion. Ms Omar said the allocation does not favour Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu “which inherited many workers from the local authority system”.

The official said the county has a workforce of 4,000.

She said that although the county has a deficit of 1,500 nurses, it advertised only 50 positions because of scare resources. More nurses, Ms Omar said, would be hired in the next financial year.

The officials backed Governor Hassan Joho and Senator Omar Hassan’s calls to collect revenue from the port.

The executives denied that millions of shillings had been squandered in the county.