Sakaja's show unfolds in Nairobi's ever-spinning circus of governance

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja appears before the Senate Energy Committee over a dispute with Kenya Power at Parliament Buildings, April 1, 2025. (Elvis Ogina, Standard)

As the saying goes, "when a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king, the palace becomes a circus". It's a saying best ascribed to political leaders, and it is easy to see how it could be applied to many countries, including ours. In fact, it's a saying that once got a journalist in another part of the world arrested a couple of years back, on account of references to that country's long-serving leader. Yet every time I look at our capital Nairobi, before and since devolution, it's as if we are predestined to be led by an eternal succession of jokers and jesters.