The punchline

The City Council of Nairobi’s annual budget is Sh9.1 billion. This is about three times the annual budget of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). The city of Nairobi, however, generates over 40 per cent of Kenya’s domestic tax and manages 3.2 million people.

While the director of KWS has a PhD in management science, most mayors that the city has had would not qualify for clerical work at City Hall. And while KWS has a board of trustees composed of intellectuals and experienced technocrats, the people who decide what happens at City Hall are councillors whose abilities fall far below that of their forgettable mayors. Is it any wonder then that Nairobi is one big pothole?