Duba tenure at City Hall breaks graft networks

By Abdikadir Sugow                   

As he leaves office to venture into politics after briefly serving as City Council of Nairobi Town Clerk, Roba Sharu Duba has created history by turning around City Hall’s fortunes in a remarkable way.

Duba made a quiet exit from office after having previously served as Town Clerk in Moyale, Kilifi, Mombasa, and finally Nairobi where he resigned this week after only a five month-stint.

He became the City Hall CEO last April when Philip Kisia quit to enter the race for Nairobi County Governor. But unlike his predecessors, Duba has left an indelible mark at the largest council.

When he took over, he revived the council’s debt control unit and vested it with the powers to identify and recover council dues. The unit moved into action in the spirit of temporary amnesty for those withholding council dues, sparing them court action.

Rates owed

The most dramatic action of his tenure remains ‘Operation Okoa Mali’, which commenced from August 2 to August 31 to recover outstanding rates owed to the council. Within this period, the council netted Sh1.3 billion in rates alone in 30 days after the default waiver grace period.

This is a record, since the previous highest amount collected was Sh800 million in 90 days, three times the period the City Hall achieved its cash haul under Duba’s watch. The monthly revenue also shot up to about Sh800 million monthly.

The other aspect of his short but chequered stint at City Hall is the curbing of wastage.

Within a short time he had identified wastage as the culprit of the council’s adverse financial position. Strict financial control of movement of council vehicles was put in place. Unnecessary travel was cut down. Travel abroad by council officials also fell drastically.

He adopted measures to motivate staff through dialogue and recognition as opposed to strong arm and intimidation.

He felt threatened as he faced the challenge of staff salaries, fearing a run on the council by workers. He says wages are a statutory requirement and appreciated the harsh urban environment they operate in.

Low morale

“There was an unprecedented extremely low level of staff morale when I came to City Hall. It was brutal and nobody cared to tackle it. I told the staff that we are corrupt and that we had failed city residents. So I told them to either support me or let me leave,” Duba said in an interview with The Standard On Sunday.

Duba says the previous administrators had not solicited the support of the staff. “There was a deafening silence from the council’s chief officer regarding staff motivation. The Nairobi City Council has the capacity to collect Sh4.5 billion, yet it could not raise even Sh400 million,” he says in a sharp indictment of previous administrators, who included Kisia, who want to become Governor of Nairobi.

When he took over, he was told the greatest challenge was payment of wages and Duba pondered why that was the situation.

“I looked outside my window and saw the KICC after I was informed that it owed the council Sh26 million. How could it proclaim its status as the country’s premier international meeting venue yet it owed us money and the council was finding difficulty in paying wages and collect garbage?”

That’s when he took the much-publicised drastic action and invoked the council’s Inspectorate Department to attach KICC property to recover the dues. “Though they pleaded with us that KICC was an international conference centre, we also told them that we are under obligation to pay wages and provide services to the people of Nairobi. The priorities were upside down. You cannot buy butter when you don’t have the bread, you must get the bread first,” says Duba.

Main mission

He says a culture of non-collaboration and excessive red tape between Government agencies’ bureaucrats and City Hall is an obstacle that constrains the council’s efforts to collect money owed. His mission was to enhance council revenue.

“When I first reported at the council in April, it was scary to handle the tasks at hand. I almost run away, but luckily I quickly discovered the loopholes and identified corruption and cartels as a major impediment,” he says. He said the council collects only 35 per cent to 40 per cent of outstanding rates, of which only 40 per cent of the collected amount reaches coffers of the council.

Duba says he sealed some of the loopholes at City Hall after he sat with the staff and received assurances from them. 

He has initiated the automation of City Hall operations and recommends the outsourcing of some services, which the council cannot handle, like waste collection, which he describes as “black gold”.

Even as the former city clerk joins murky politics to vie for the seat of Moyale Member of Parliament, Nairobi residents and council workers will certainly miss the man who served for short stint and made a great impact at City Hall.