Governors hold key to building cities from existing urban rubble

By Mwenda Njoka

NAIROBI, KENYA: Like the phoenix, that legendary bird of Greek and Egyptian mythology, which cyclically dies and rises again from its own ashes afresh as a renewed creature, Governors are in a very central position in the country to rebuild—from the ashes of existing urban rubble—modern metropolis that will help drive Kenya into new brave world.

For the purposes of making things less complicated than they already are, my focus, at least for today, will be on the onus ahead for Governors in three most strategic cities in the country—Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.  Nairobi County, of course, is by far the country’s largest city as well as the commercial heart and nerve centre of the nation state. Governor Evans Odhiambo Kidero is at the helm of Nairobi, Governor Hassan Joho is in charge of the coastal holiday County of Mombasa and last but not least, there is Governor Jack Ranguma in Kisumu. Dr Kidero and Mr Ranguma are seasoned corporate world leaders.

Having worked and made a noteworthy mark in the corporate world, Kidero and Ranguma have what it takes to push Nairobi County and Kisumu County respectively to where they need and indeed ought to be. Early this week, soon after taking the oath of office, Kidero made some populist moves. Nothing untoward about that. After all, this is the stuff that politicians are made of—ability to make trendy decisions that will earn them  here-and-now political points. But that is usually the stuff of hard knuckle politicians; not the real world administrators.

And the people we elected as Governors of our key cities are some of the country’s most serious and hardnosed administrators who — with the exception of Mr Joho — have no history of politicking.

So briefly back to Nairobi County, Kidero interdicted a number of senior employees of the defunct Nairobi City Council (which is now part of Nairobi County) suspected of having sticky fingers and at the same time blacklisted several companies alleged to have engaged in shady shenanigans.

That’s fine. But the Governor needs to and has to move beyond populism and think long term. What ails Nairobi County? What are the factors that have made the capital city a pale shadow of its former self? Why is it that even the best and brightest mayors of Nairobi (Steve ‘Magic’ Mwangi— RIP— comes to mind) were unable to unleash the great potential that lay within the capital metropolis? Because they focused more on achieving the ‘hear-and-now-immediate-results’ putting out of focus the long-term.

Now, among a number of independent studies that have been carried out to establish what ails the Capital Metropolis, one issue consistently sticks out; revenue collection and remittance of the same to the relevant authorities. Investing in a system that maps out all buildings in the city clearly determining the relevant rates payable would increase revenue tenfold without an incremental cost on rate payers. Cities such as London have a most efficient system of ensuring that everyone supposed to pay rates, does pay.

So a good starting point should be the Revenue Collection Department. Here you have individuals and cartels that have been living off— and grown on— the fat of the land to become some of the fattest lambs on the land. Clearly, there is something wrong here, don’t you think?

So how do you deal with this? By securing, restructuring, rationalising, automating and sealing loopholes in the Revenue Collection Department. And as the good book says—Mathew 6:33—, “everything else shall be added unto you.” So, if Governors Kidero, Joho and Ranguma streamline their revenue collection, seal loopholes of corruption, invest the money in the right places; then clearly—and as the Bible says— everything else shall be given unto him.