Rescue capital city from greedy, reckless and unqualified officers

Former Nairobi Urban Planning Chief Officer Patrick Analo and Former Nairobi Finance CEC Charles Kerich. [File, Standard]

Thursday’s arrest of Nairobi’s Urban Planning Chief Officer Patrick Analo Akivaga, his wife and seizure of tens of millions hidden in his Syokimau home read like a movie script. While his conduct has attracted public concern, this moment must not be reduced to wrongdoing of an individual.

We must also focus on deeper, systemic and relational failures that enabled him thrive at City Hall. Televised EACC raids revealing boxes and suitcases stuffed with bundles of thousand-shilling notes were dramatic. Only a full audit of his and his families bank accounts, Nairobi and Vihiga properties, assets, car boots and eventual charge sheet will show the true scale of his wealth.

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission guidelines cap a County Chief Officer’s monthly salary at Sh283,000. Even using the EACC’s figure of Sh 65.3 million (and overlooking media reports of Sh250 million) seized from his home, it would take 19 years to accumulate that in salary.

A senior director across the Sonko–Kananu–Sakaja administrations, Analo is no stranger to controversy. A February 2026 Ombudsperson report, covered in this column, cited abuse of power, urged his criminal prosecution alongside four others including County Minister Stephen Mwangi, and flagged unlawful prior approvals, ignored objections, and weak enforcement linked to corruption.

As Analo heads to court, focusing on him alone misses the wider system enabling abuse and illicit wealth. Nairobi, the country’s main construction hub, issues an estimated 4–6,000 permits annually. This generates over Sh2 billion or 22 per cent of the Nairobi County Government’s of own-source revenue. Yet the planning governance remains deliberately opaque.

Industry experts say the approvals process is greased by bribes. Files are “lost,” “delayed,” or fast-tracked for a fee without a receipt of e-TIMS. Projects stall without informal payments or offers of an apartment flat or two. Approvals are regularly granted for buildings that are non-compliant and breach safety, zoning, and planning laws such as the National Building Code, Physical and Land Use Planning Act (2019).

From the deadly floods, collapsing buildings, stinking garbage, seeping sewage to the traffic congestion and tenure insecurity, Nairobi reflects a city effectively sold off to developers (most are not Kenyan) for the profit of a few corrupt officials at City Hall.

Nairobi’s permit system is not just broken. It’s in a corruption chokehold that raises business costs, constrains housing supply, and strangles a liveable city for over five million of us. 

Anxious not to be implicated, a responsive governor would immediately announce a systemic failure, skip the temptation to introduce the “rogue officer” narrative, suspend all five officials named in the Ombudsman February report pending full investigations, and hand over all permits, approvals, and inspection records from Analo’s tenure to the EACC. The county would impose a 30-day moratorium on all approvals, publish five years of permit data, timelines, and statuses, end in-person follow-ups, launch a digital transparency public dashboard with permit logs, timestamps, status, a 30-day delay complaint system and all monthly revenue collected.

Within 180 days, approvals, inspections, and enforcement would be separated to ensure no single officer controls the full pipeline. Enforcement officers without qualifications in structural engineering, architecture or planning would be phased out or retrained.

Nairobians would discuss, and the County Assembly would pass, legally binding development control guidelines and area physical development plans. Isn’t it time for national regulators like NCA, NHA, KURA, KeNHA and NEMA to act decisively? Encroachments are rampant. Why wait a decade to mark and bring down buildings with the prohibitive red “X” when you can act now? 2027 aspirants, should those currently in office snooze, make this your focus.

This week’s bold EACC action demonstrates the power of consistent advocacy by the Metro Alliance, its members Denis Pritt Association, Parklands Residents Association, Kilimani Community Foundation and South B Residents Association, Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations, the Ombudsperson and others.

Citizen letters, media exposés and joint litigation work. However, without pressure for systemic change, our capital city and 20 per cent of its revenue remains captured by reckless profiteers.