Let new team quickly turn around Nairobi

The creation of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services completes the takeover of the city management by the national government. Weeks ago, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko and the Devolution ministry signed a trust deed that legally transferred core functions from the county to the national government. On Wednesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta presided over the formal takeover, set up the new entity and appointed a military officer, Maj-Gen Mohamed Abdala Badi, to run the city, assisted by Enoch Onyango Momanyi.

The change of city management was inevitable. Since Mr Sonko was elected governor in 2017, the county has hurtled from one crisis to another. For Mr Sonko was, and is, a clueless leader driven by impulse and hamstrung by a modest education. It was a miracle that the city has survived this long in his hands.

Under Mr Sonko, Nairobi sank to its lowest depth. It turned into one big filth capital inundated with roguish hawkers and boda-boda riders. All services — from garbage collection to rate payment — ground to a halt while the governor preoccupied himself with infantile exhibitionism. Indeed, this was a direct indictment of the Sonko regime and sobering check on management of counties. Maj-Gen Badi and team have their work cut out. President Kenyatta gave them 100 days to turn around the city’s fortunes, demolish corruption and the entrenched cartels, enhance debt collection, reform the public transport system, recover grabbed land, streamline waste and garbage collection, resuscitate and complete stalled projects and revamp public health and other social services. It is a Herculean task but it must be done.

Faced with such a humungous assignment, the best thing to do is prioritise and insist on deliverables with key milestones. Maj-Gen Badi should not delude himself that he can tackle the mess built up over generations. The starting point is to smash graft networks and institutionalise an accountable governance system that will tackle the challenges that make city life one big muddle. Even so, we must step back and ask tough questions. What is the implication of the takeover of the city by the national government? Is this the beginning of the end for devolution? Who is Nairobi Metropolitan Services answerable to? What does that portend for good governance? How will the agency be financed? What is the value of the continued stay of Mr Sonko as governor when most functions have been taken over by the new entity?

The lesson is that, whereas we vouch for elective leadership at the county, voters must learn and elect suitable candidates — those with the appropriate qualification, temperament and erudition to manage a modern metropolis like Nairobi.