What new city team must do

There are great expectations from the newly established Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS). The residents are hoping that the team led by Major-General Mohamed Badi will clear the rot that has taken root over the years, and which the inept leadership of Governor Mike Sonko failed to fix. The most immediate is the resumption of garbage collection to remove the stinking heaps that have been strewn all over, especially in the city centre, shaming the capital.

Some of the quick fixes that the Major-General Badi team needs to carry out do not require a lot of resources. They should be done immediately. Also crying out for attention is the traffic mess in the city centre. Rogue matatu operators have defied numerous attempts to rid the central business district of congestion. And the problem is getting out of hand. Within a span of a week, two Nation Media Group employers have been knocked down and killed by reckless drivers right in the city centre and not far away from their workplace.

As we mourn the deaths of these two, the need to sort out the traffic mess cannot be more urgent. Granted, the city county employs traffic marshals, backed up by police. However, their input is not being felt and the chaos is compounded by the proliferation of bodaboda motorcyclists.

The NMS must take the bull by its horns and create more room for pedestrians to enjoy strolling through the heart of their capital. What is even more annoying is that there are enough ideas and proposals on how this can be done. Past attempts to bar matatus from entering the city centre have failed following protests by the operators and their influential supporters. However, we cannot continue like this.

Sorting out the city public transport sector is one of the tasks that the NMS has been given. It should go ahead and implement past proposals to create matatu termini away from the city centre and get the bodabodas out as well. Like other world cities, Nairobi deserves some order.