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As Kenya’s capital city, many changes have taken place in Nairobi. The city has become more chaotic than ever before. As we wait to hear the fate of embattled Governor Mike Sonko, who is facing graft related charges, we have an opportunity to think about the fate of the city.
Nairobi is Kenya’s economic hub. Besides hosting national government offices, it is home to our best universities. Considering that it hosts the United Nations Environment Programme headquarters, it is also home the international community.
The city should be run professionally. But Nairobi has faced major economic challenges under governors Evans Kidero and Sonko administrations.
Recently uncovered archives of the British Cabinet give us some details about how the Kenyan federal system came about.
Kenyan devolution was the brainchild of a Swiss constitutional expert Eduard Zellweger.
While the federal system might work well in Switzerland, the same may not apply in Kenya.
The idea of splitting Kenya into counties was to break up ethnic dominance of larger tribes and protect the small tribes.
Kenya has gone through a lot of constitutional changes since independence. It is unclear whether Mr Zellweger was the architect of devolution as it is now.
But devolution should be tailored to meet the needs of Kenyans.
The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) taskforce’s suggestion that our capital city should get a special status is in order.
Nairobi should be built on the Washington DC model. It should be able to generate its revenue.
As an economic hub, Nairobi must meet global environmental, security and infrastructural standards.
The BBI report has stressed that Nairobi should have a special status.
It is high time we came up with creative solutions to turn Nairobi into the global city that it should be.
Before jumping to criticise the BBI report, let us think about what these new plans could do for our economy.
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