Please help, Sonko now cries out to Raila on county wars
By Collins OmuloNairobi County Governor Mike Sonko has now reached out to former premier Raila Odinga for help in his unending battle with the State over the takeover of Nairobi County government functions.
The governor has called on the ODM Party leader as well as Chief Justice David Maraga and the Senate to intervene and end the incessant wrangles at the county.
Governor Sonko, who has been in an on and off battle with Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director General Mohammed Badi and unnamed individuals from the National Government since April, appealed for urgent intervention to avert Nairobi County from going burst.
“My humble appeal now goes to the honourable chief justice, the Senate and Raila Odinga as great defenders of devolution in this country. We need your urgent intervention and rich wisdom in this crisis before the County cripples down and is taken away by selfish individuals,” said Mr Sonko.
He raised concerns that service delivery in the capital has been affected through greed, selfishness, diversionary tactics and smear campaigns currently being witnessed at the county.
Going against the spirit of the Deed of Transfer of functions
With no love lost between the City Hall chief and Major General Badi, the former Nairobi Senator accused Mr Badi of being partisan in his conduct going against the spirit of the Deed of Transfer of functions “which was to complement and not compete with my administration”.
Governor Sonko signed the Deed of Transfer on February 25, 2020, at the height of a spirited push by MCAs to remove him from office, handing over four functions of transport, health, public works, utilities and ancillary services, and county planning and development to the State.
“I thought they will focus on main areas where I needed help like addressing the decongestion, management and implementation of modern traffic and transport infrastructure system among other important areas to the benefit of the public in terms of service delivery and in accordance with Article 187(2)b,” said Mr Sonko.
“However, NMS led by General Badi has conducted itself in a partisan political manner against the Deed of Transfer which was to complement and not compete with my administration.”
He claimed that the current crisis being witnessed at the county government is being driven by “dark forces in the system” with the aim of actualising a complete takeover of the county government.
“The crisis and division being witnessed is sadly being created by some dark forces in the System who are doing divide and rule tactics so that they have a complete takeover of the county through the back door, I promise you, very soon the truth shall be known to all,” said the governor.
To support his assertion, he challenged Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to reveal the names of ward representatives who he said had been disarmed by the national government.
The assembly witnessed chaos last week after an attempt to serve Speaker Beatrice Elachi a court order temporarily suspending the appointment of Edward Gichana as new Assembly Clerk- as well as notice of her impeachment motion- was foiled by the police who reigned terror on the ward representatives.
“Believe you me, there is no MCA who goes to the assembly while armed and to-date, no MCA has been disarmed. With all the due respect, can CS Matiang’i share the names of the 14 MCAs he is alleging to have disarmed?” he posed, adding that there are clear guidelines on how firearms are handled within the assembly precincts under the strict supervision of sergeant-at-arms.
The former Makadara MP defended his administration saying that for the last two years, tremendous progress has been made in service delivery in the capital leading to the recognition of Nairobi as one of the top cities globally.
He pointed out that he had managed to see the construction of modern of markets and fire stations, upgrade and equipping of county health facilities, beautification of major roads employing thousands of jobless youths, upgrade of estate roads, sinking of boreholes, upgrading of City Stadium and construction of four new stadiums.