Activist group wants Nairobi out of devolution, into capital territory

Mtetezi officials, Francis Awino, Mc'Olonde Charles, Sifuna Misenya, Joshua Nyanjom and Paul Victor, address the media on a proposal to restructure Nairobi into a special metropolitan capital territory. [Bernard Orwongo, Standard] A Nairobi-based civil society group has called for a national debate on stripping Nairobi of its county status and restructuring it into a special metropolitan capital territory. The proposal challenges the devolution framework enshrined in Kenya's 2010 constitution. Mtetezi, a group that describes itself as a grassroots economic justice movement, issued the call on Saturday, as the High Court prepares to hear an urgent petition challenging a contested Sh80 billion cooperation agreement signed between the national government and Nairobi County on February 17. "Should Nairobi continue to function as a county, or should it be restructured into a special metropolitan capital city that reflects its national and regional role?" Mtetezi National Convenor Francis Awino said in a statement. Awino cited what the group called a structural mismatch between Nairobi's administrative boundaries and the economic and social reality of the wider metropolitan region, which draws millions of daily commuters from neighbouring Kiambu, Machakos and Kajiado counties. The group pointed to three rounds of national government intervention in Nairobi's management as evidence that the current county framework has repeatedly failed the city. In 2008, the administration of President Mwai Kibaki established the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development to coordinate regional planning across the expanding commuter belt under the Vision 2030 development blueprint. In 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta and then-Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko signed a Deed of Transfer, handing four key county functions to the national government and creating Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS). The High Court later found parts of that transfer unlawful, ruling that the Nairobi County Assembly had not formally approved the arrangement. The Sh80 billion deal between President William Ruto's administration and Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, signed last month, is now the subject of a court challenge the High Court certified as urgent, scheduling a hearing for Monday, March 16. The group proposed a Nairobi Metropolitan Authority to coordinate planning across the four counties, with an elected metropolitan governor supported by a professional city executive. It cited Washington D.C., London and Abuja as examples of capital cities operating under governance frameworks distinct from those of ordinary local governments. Mtetezi framed the proposal as a public conversation rather than a formal petition, and no bill or legal action accompanies the call.

Activist group wants Nairobi out of devolution, into capital territory

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Activist group wants Nairobi out of devolution, into capital territory

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