Can Sonko tame shrewd City Hall cartels rackets? – Weekly Citizen

A Nairobi chief officer who was seen as untouchable has been unceremoniously fired days after Governor Mike Sonko declared war against senior officials accused of disloyalty and insubordination of his administration.
Weekly Citizen is reliably informed that City Hall’s chief officer in charge of planning Justus Kathenge is the first casualty after Sonko promised to sack six executives and three chief officers who have joined cartels that drain the county and stall development.
When the flamboyant governor announced his intention to crack the whip on the senior officials, he categorically pointed at the lands and planning department whose officers he said have been coopted by racketeers to the extent that they make sensitive decisions without his input.

Governor Sonko

However, in a swift counterattack, the marked officials are believed to be behind the current sustained fierce online war where the governor is accused of runaway high-profile corruption that has robbed the county billions of shillings.
But Weekly Citizen can authoritatively uncover that urban planning department as it is famously known, is the money minting docket to many who work at City Hall who have been singing loyalty songs to Governor Sonko while looting the tax payers’ coffer.
Apart from the sacked Kathenge, there are other prominent faces of corruption in the department also fashioning themselves as untouchable and they are the same people who have made billions of shillings within a short time since Sonko took office.
Ironically, the two have turned against Sonko and have been badmouthing him at any given opportunity, bragging that governor is not swift enough to catch up with their intellectually planned operations.
A highly placed source revealed that whenever a plan is submitted for approval, Kathenge would always maneuver to meet the architect in a bid to open negotiation before the plan is approved.
During negotiation, Kathenge conspired with the architect to reduce the measurements in terms of figures for the proposed structure while the actual structure remains the same.
In such a deal, the plinth area is reduced and only 20-30pc is paid while the remaining money for the actual structure is handed to Kathenge.
For example, if the plinth area is 3 by 4 which equals to 12 square metres then times Sh33,000 (value for construction per square metre) plus signboard fee which is Sh35,000.
This totals to Sh431,000 and if it is a storey building times the number of floors for example 10 floors the developer would part with averagely a whopping Sh3.4 million.
But in Kathenge’s version of operation of the plinth area is reduced to either 2 by 2 meaning total measurements is 4 square metre times Sh33,000 plus Sh35,000 equals Sh167,000 then if it is storey building it is Sh1.6 million.
In a plain calculation Sh4, 310,000 minus Sh1,670,000 equals to mouthwatering Sh2,640,000 considered Kathenge’s share in a single deal.
Sources further said that Kathenge and his handlers have been illegally pocketing millions of shillings collected from developers with constructions above eight floors.
Kathenge cartel is said to be enjoying protection of a powerful Jubilee MCA of Somali origin and leader of majority Abdi Guyo. They have sabotaged the system so that the audit cannot take place. Guyo has been the link between the City Hall cartel and billionaire Somalis now engaged in mega constructions within the city estates and CBD.
In Eastleigh, a property was recently grabbed by a Somali tycoon on grounds that the tenure had expired. Governor Sonko himself visited the site and arrest warrants were issued against the land grabbers. To date, a section at City Hall courts were bribed and those implicated are walking scotfree. Already, City Hall has approved plans to construct residential flats.
Weekly Citizen undercover team has unearthed some of the prominent launching pads of their dirty deals and the same places where money has been picked and shared.
Trattoria Restaurant in the CBD is the place for deals worth more than Sh1 million while Café Helena next to City Hall is considered ideal for small amounts less than Sh1m.
Other places are International Life House also within CBD and Yaya Centre where bulk money in the range of Sh5 million and above is allegedly picked.
According to the operation, a common face picks the money along Mombasa Road before later meeting Kathenge at Season’s Hotel in Embakasi where the loot is shared.

One Fredrick Ochanda and some other junior guys in the department are deployed to pick money from clients whom they suspect might set them up to avoid the trap, if any.
The dirty money is later cleaned through purported businesses which do not exist before buying properties which can be confirmed by KRA.
But there are fears that Sonko could have slowed down on his threat to implement full action against the six executives and three chief officers ostensibly after they reportedly ganged up to kick off blackmail against the governor through an online war exposing his dirty side.
Should Sonko make good of his threat, then it would not be the first time he is sacking his executives over disloyalty and insubordination.
In one case, the controversial governor suspended four top county officials for what he termed as insubordination over the Pumwani Maternity Hospital Saga.
Those suspended were county secretary Peter Kariuki, devolution CEC Veska Kangogo, chief officer health services Mahat Jimale and county attorney Lydia Kwamboka.
The move, however, turned dramatic following the appointment of Christine Ireri to replace Kwamboka as the county attorney coupled with a previous decision by health CEC nominee Stella Bosire to reject Sonko’s offer under unclear circumstances.
Ireri was to be sacked after she teamed with lawyers to pay controversial pending bills running into millions of shillings that saw her buy a prime property in Lavington area and invest in other business using proxy firms operated by family members and allies. Part of the money is being held in her lawyer’s accounts to avoid suspicion.
The appointment of Ireri in a position initially held by Kwamboka left tongues wagging given that she is a greenhorn in the legal field with no experience.