Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja is walking on tightrope and could be having sleepless nights based on the recent developments in the city.
Coming barely two months after being put on the radar by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations over allegations touching on fraud, Nairobi County is back in circulation.
The latest developments are attempts to remove some of the governor’s allies from key leadership positions in the ounty Assembly, ejecting hawkers from some roads and walkways in the heart of the city.
And the shocking reports came from Ethics and Ant-corruption Commission listing Nairobi among the counties where public funds are likely being misappropriated using digitised revenue collection system.
First, plans to remove Minority Leader Anthony Kiragu and Minority Whip Mark Mugambi who are close allies of the Governor caught the county boss in surprise.
The two have since rushed to court to block their ouster by a faction led by Nairobi South Member Waithera Chege who in their first statement after being appointed by UDA read a hard-hitting statement accusing Sakaja for sleeping on the job.
The plans to remove the governor’s allies were supported by 35 out of 52 UDA MCA’s in a process that is now before the court, UDA party the County Speaker who is supposed to announce any changes in the house.
The new faction led by Waithera Chege in a joint statement stated that for one year, there have been issues bedeviling both the Assembly and the Executive and must be resolved.
They said the issues include a complacent Assembly that does not ask questions citing that the previous leadership only pursued personal agenda instead of offering support in the form of both criticism and legislative support.
At the same time, they highlighted poor delays in resourcing of assembly activities, lack of meaningful legislative support and disconnect between the Executive priorities and the realities on the ground.
“Our people have already told us what they want the government to address including collection of garbage, traffic congestion, supply of clean water, repair of impassable roads among other issues,” Waithera stated.
Pointing out, “Unfortunately, this is not what the executive is implementing. We want to see results and not rhetoric, payment of huge legal fee and harassment of traders by County Askaris can never be the people’s priority,”
Meanwhile, the court issued temporary orders allowing Kiragu and Mugambi to stay in office until the matter is heard on November 7th.
While that could be seen as relief for Sakaja allies, orders banning hawkers from operating on walkways and some roads at the city centre.
“There will be no hawking on the road. In fact, I am enforcing it from tomorrow morning, even around the bus station, I will not allow that,” Sakaja said.
He said the move will de-congest the city centre where residents have been raising concerns over the influx of hawkers from afternoon hours.
The new directive was made by the Governor during a consultative meeting with the inspectorate officers from Central Business District (CBD) and representatives of hawkers.
The attempts to de-congest the city centre has attracted a huge debate in the city including a warning by Members of Parliament led by Starehe lawmaker Amos Mwago.
Mwago said the move is too harsh in such economic times and that it goes against Sakaja’s campaign pledge to support small traders thus he should rethink the directive.
Then came the statement by EACC dubbed theft of public funds in digitized revenue systems where Nairobi was listed among four counties with serious accountability deficits in their revenue management systems.
“In the emerging patterns of automated looting of public funds, contracts for revenue management systems are designed with inbuilt corruption ranging from irregular tender awards favouring entities linked to county officials to fraudulent dealings within automated systems,” EACC stated.
Nairobi City County Government has since responded in a statement dated October 27th explaining that the County has been relying on a national government-like revenue system since the regime of Nairobi Metropolitan Services.
“NCCG is developing its own revenue collection and service delivery portal, a process that could take a year. In the meantime the County has written to the Ministry of ICT requesting the National Government to continue availing its systems until the county deploy it system,” the County statement reads in part.
Well, it has been a long week for Nairobi governor Sakaja as the matters keeps weighing on his back on a daily basis, will he carry the weight or blink like his predecessors. Only time will tell.
