By Kisumu County Assembly Press
The House yesterday (Wednesday, 3rd June, 2026) adopted a report by the Ad Hoc Committee on Kisumu County Own-Source Revenue, detailing how the county continues to lose billions in revenue figures and recommending a raft of measures to change the state of affairs.
The committee was established in February 2026 following persistent and systemic underperformance of the county’s own-source revenue against approved annual targets – a structural deficit that has progressively constrained the county government’s capacity to fund development and discharge its service delivery obligations to residents of the county.
The Ad Hoc Committee was therefore tasked to conduct a comprehensive, evidence-based inquiry into the root causes of this underperformance and recommend concrete and implementable reforms.
And yesterday, the committee chaired by the Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Lumumba Owade, presented its report, which pointed to systemic weaknesses in institutional governance, technological infrastructure, enforcement culture and legal compliance that have facilitated leakages of billions of the county’s own-source revenue.
The report recommended a forensic audit of the county revenue management system and disciplinary actions against key officers at the Directorate of ICT for allegedly tampering with the system to “facilitate theft”.
It also indicted acting City Manager Mr Abala Wanga following poor performance of various revenue streams whose collections were delegated to the City Board; the committee recommended to the Governor to relieve the City Manager of his duties.
The report further recommended that the Kisumu City Board be stripped of all revenue collection functions and that revenue collection remain a sole responsibility of the Kisumu Revenue Board, recommending revocation of Gazette Notice No. 6298 on delegation of revenue collection responsibilities to the Kisumu City Board, issued in May 2024.
In line with this, the CEC Member for Finance, Economic Planning and ICT was directed to ensure that the Kisumu County Revenue Board is properly constituted within 60 days and that the current acting Chief Executive Officer of the Revenue Board be dismissed over alleged negligence.
The County Secretary and the County Public Service Board were also directed to immediately institute legal and disciplinary proceedings against all officers documented as having engaged in revenue malpractice, misappropriation or financial misconduct.
Debating the motion on adoption of the report, Hon. Members bemoaned that the low revenue figures had affected the implementation of development projects in the county.
“When we interact with residents, they complain that nothing is happening on the ground. We must therefore insist that those found culpable of revenue pilferage are held to account and that there are no sacred cows,” said nominated MCA Hon. Emily Oginga.
