City residents to Sakaja: Slow down, we'll pay up when we can, even Kenya has debts

Nairobi Governor Sakaja Johnson during a meeting with sub-county and ward administrators, and the executive team at Charter Hall, on January 22, 2025. [File, Standard].

It was delightful to see calm response from many city dwellers who have defaulted on rent for years, when kanjos descended on their hoods. I understand many have not paid rent for up to ten years and City Hole is owed up to some tidy sums, estimated at Sh200m.

It's not as much as they have stolen, but it in all honesty, it's significant. I won't add that City Hole hasn't maintained those units for a decade, collected garbage or fixed city thoroughfares, otherwise they'd have collected rent in the process.

So, the city askaris descended, causing their usual pandemonium by breaking doors and windows in a bid to gain access into those premises and pouring the contents outside. A dreadlocked young tenant said: "Tell Sakaja (the dimpled Nairobi governor who smiled his way to office) kwa ground kumewaka."

This means the ground is on fire, which can be further elaborated to mean their lived experience is pretty grim. And the lad was urging: Tell Sakaja to go easy. Things are hard, and when they improve, so will our rent default.

Another resident, who looked older and slightly inebriated, pointed to a neighbour's house. See that maskan over there, he posed, hiccupped then went on. They broke into the house and tossed his stuff outside. The law requires that you padlock the door over the other padlock...

I didn't follow his logic. I couldn't tell if the intent of adding another padlock to an already locked door was meant to secure the contents inside or prohibiting access of the defaulting tenant.