Ruto to address Nairobi MCAs in historic event

Nairobi County Assembly during a past sitting.  [File, Standard]

President Ruto will, on Thursday, 9, 2026, address the Nairobi County Assembly, Speaker Kennedy Ngondi has confirmed.

This will be the first time for the president to address the County Assembly since the introduction of devolution sixteen years ago.

While addressing the Assembly on Tuesday, Ngondi said preparations are already underway, including security measures befitting the head of state.

"This address will be historic because it will be characterised by protocols and formalities that benefit the Presidential Address, akin only to the State of the Nation Address normally delivered in the Kenyan National Assembly," the Speaker stated.

"To ensure the success of this State of the Address, plans which include parking management, access control, security in and around City Hall, traffic management, protocol and limitation gates and flags of the County Assembly are already at an advanced stage," he added.
 
This comes at a time when the county has signed a cooperation agreement with the National Government, allowing it to take over some key functions, including waste management, infrastructure, and housing.

For this reason, it is expected that his speech will largely touch on the agreement and planned development in the city under the Sh80 billion cooperation agreement.

Yesterday, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who is the chairperson of the steering committee on implementation agreement, chaired a joint meeting ahead of President Ruto's address

In a statement, Mudavadi said that since the signing of the agreement, measurable progress has been made in establishing the governance and coordination architecture necessary to support implementation. 

"The Implementation Committee, chaired by Governor Sakaja, is now fully constituted and operational. It has met consistently and established five (5) functional sub-committees," Mudavadi stated.

The Sub-committees include legal, finance, governance, communication, roads and infrastructure.

Others are urban planning, environment, water and sanitation.

These sub-committees have commenced the critical work of defining priorities, developing work plans, and aligning sector interventions to the commitments of the Cooperation Agreement.

The Prime Cabinet Secretary insisted that the cooperation agreement is not a takeover but a structured framework to develop Nairobi.

"On security, I note the progress made towards the conceptualisation of the Nairobi Metropolitan Police Unit. Given the centrality of security to urban functionality and economic activity, I urge the Ministry of Interior and National Administration to expedite the development of a clear policy, legal and operational framework for consideration by this Committee," he added.