State House Comptroller Katoo Ole Metito appeared before the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on October 12, 2023, to discuss the payment of Ksh869 million to a medical company for projects in Nairobi. The payments were made by the Office of the President during former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s term for the construction of medical facilities in Nairobi under the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS).
During the committee session chaired by John Mbadi, MPs raised concerns about why the Office of the President had made these payments to the company before the completion of 19 hospitals in the city.
In response, Metito acknowledged that the company was indeed paid before the NMS projects were fully finished. However, he emphasized that most of the projects were already close to completion, with only three medical facilities remaining to be finished. Metito assured the committee that plans were in place to ensure the prompt completion and operationalization of these facilities.
Metito stated, “I wish to state that as of August 15, 2023, eight Level Three health facilities and eight Level Two hospitals had been completed and operationalized.”
On a separate note, the State House official also faced questions about the pending bills at the Office of the President, which amounted to over Ksh15.9 billion. The auditor’s report indicated that out of these pending bills, Ksh14.8 billion was related to NMS, while State House itself had pending bills amounting to Ksh1.1 billion.
The majority of the pending bills within NMS were connected to payments for development projects carried out by the defunct NMS, which assumed several responsibilities from the county government on February 25, 2020.
Metito explained that some of the pending bills had already been settled, and he noted that delays were due to budget cuts imposed by the National Treasury, as reported by Parliament.
