Nairobi MCAs question State House city management deal

Nairobi MCAs led by Minority Leader Anthony Kiragu during press conference at the Assembly, Nairobi. [Pkemoi Ngeno, Standard]

Nairobi Members of County Assembly have said they are yet to interact with the cooperation agreement that was signed in State House on Tuesday, allowing the national government to assist in managing the city.

Speaking on Thursday, the MCAs led by Minority Leader Anthony Kiragu, however, said they support the cooperation and await it to be forwarded in the Assembly for the Members to interact with it and understand its fine details.

"We are yet to interact with the agreement, just like any other official document, which will come to the assembly officially, be subjected to public participation and be passed,” Kiragu stated

Adding that, “As members of the County Assembly, we affirm that we are fully part of the process and that our constituents stand to benefit directly from the projects and the programmes arising from this cooperation,”

It, however, emerged that the majority of the MCAs supporting the deal were those from the UDA, leave for few from the ODM.

Kiragu added that the 80 billion funding in the agreement, if utilised, will make Nairobi attain the standard of leading cities in the continent.

“Nairobi is the face of Kenya, and if Nairobi succeeds, Kenya succeeds. Then we owe it to ourselves to interrogate this document first before coming to any conclusion in any extreme manner,” added Nasra Nanda, another MCA

Another section of Ward Reps argues that if the agreement is approved, their oversight roles might be watered down; thus, they will reject it, citing that the move indicates that Sakaja failed to deliver.

Meanwhile, Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) Secretary General Francis Atwoli said the cooperation agreement between the Nairobi County and the national government was long overdue.

He said, currently Nairobi should be on the same level with some of the organised cities in Africa, including Accra, Abuja, Kigali, the Ivory Coast.

“We cannot remain in a filthy city, a city of riders’ hawkers, matatus. When somebody arrives at the JKIA, Mombasa Road is full of hawkers depicting the picture of poverty of Kenya,” Atwoli said

Pointing out, “Nairobi cannot be left in the hands of the governor, in fact, for two years I have been consistent that Nairobi should be taken by the national government

Atwoli noted that any initiative by the national government to usurp some of the services Nairobi is offering to Kenyans must be supported by Kenyans of goodwill.

“This is because Nairobi is our gateway, and I want to support the President when he said that lack of exposure is a big problem for many Kenyans.