Nakuru Senator sounds alarm over revenue drop from Sh3.6bn to Sh792m

Rift Valley
By Antony Gitonga | Dec 23, 2025
Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja. [Antony Gitonga, Standard]

Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja Keroche has raised the red-flag over the sharp drop in revenue collection in Nakuru County from Sh3.6 billion to Sh792 million in the last three years.

The Senator is now calling on the Controller of Budget not to approve any more budgetary allocation to the county until the drop was investigated.

This comes a week after the Controller of Budget flagged Nakuru as one of the counties where revenue collection had dropped while absorption of development funds was at the lowest.

Speaking in Naivasha, Senator Karanja attributed the drop in collection to failure to automate collection of revenue systems giving workers a chance to engage in graft.

She said when Governor Kihika took over from the previous regime, revenue collection stood at Sh3.6B but this had dropped to Sh792m in the last financial year.

“The revenue first dropped to Sh1.6B before further plummeting to Sh792m as per the Controller of Budget and I attribute this to graft,”

“As a result, this has seen capital projects like hospitals and rehabilitation of roads stall and we are calling on EACC to investigate this loss,” she said.

The Senator revisited the construction of a multi-million hotel in Nakuru on land owned by Kenya Railways a couple of years after the previous tenants were forcefully evicted.

“The information we have is that this hotel belongs to a senior officer in the county and I shall be seeking a statement from the Senate on how this land was acquired from Kenya Railways,” she said.

She revisited the construction of the affordable houses at the land set for the Naivasha stadium without public participation.

“The Delamere family donated 27 acres for a stadium specifically but this has been sub-divided to 14 acres for the houses and the rest have been grabbed,” she said.

Former chairman KNCCI in Nakuru County Njuguna Kamau said that they had gone to court to stop the affordable housing project on land meant for a stadium.

“The Delamere family was very clear that this land was for a stadium but after years in court, the county has come in and sub-divided it and this is illegal and hence the legal redress,” he said.

Former Lakeview MCA Simon Wanyoike blamed the current crisis in the county to MCAs who had gone to bed with the Governor and abandoned their oversight role.

“The Controller of Budget has revealed the county has 311 bank accounts and revenue is dropping but the MCAs have kept quiet as the electorate continues to suffer,” he said.

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