Inside Sakaja’s plan for a perfect Nairobi

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Inside Sakaja’s plan for a perfect Nairobi

By Kevin Cheruiyot October 20th, 2022 2 min read

On Wednesday, Nairobi County Governor Johnson Sakaja highlighted his grand plans to transform the county in his first term.

While addressing Nairobi MCAs at the County Assembly when he officially opened the sittings, the governor asked the MCAs to rally behind him to fulfill his promises to the residents of Nairobi.

The governor said that in the next week, all the county revenues would be fully collected digitally to fill the loopholes to which the county has been losing money.

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City residents walk past some ladies hand bags placed on the ground for sale on August 24, 2022 by a hawker along Tom Mboya Street. The newly elected governor Johnson Sakaja is to be sworn in on Thursday August 25th and Nairobi residents are optimistic the new governor will do a better job to clean up the city which has been neglected lately, improve on the city to make it more business friendly and finally put an end to the many hawkers who have occupied every available free space in the city. Picture by Francis Nderitu

He said that currently, the county is collecting Sh9 billion annually in Own Source Revenue according to the studies. However, the recent Commission on Revenue Allocation report shows that the county can hit up to Sh67 billion.

“We all know that a myriad of reasons have led to revenue leakages in the past including non-digitization of revenue streams, manual collection (and stealing) of cash as well as multiple platforms for payment of rates and other fees,” Sakaja said.

“In the last month we have burnt the midnight oil in addressing this and will be launching a new revamped system of revenue administration in the next week. No money will be received or demanded for in cash. We must reign in all our revenue and on this I shall not compromise.”

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A heap of garbage lies uncollected along Haile Selassie Avenue on August 24, 2022. The newly elected governor Johnson Sakaja is to be sworn in on Thursday August 25th and Nairobi residents are optimistic the new governor will do a better job to clean up the city which has been neglected lately, improve on the city to make it more business friendly and finally put an end to the many hawkers who have occupied every available free space in the city. Picture by Francis Nderitu

The governor said that his administration is keen on lighting up the city.

“So far close to 5,000 lights have been restored and 225 new ones installed. Roads maintenance is ongoing including patchwork in various main roads, alleys and lanes across the city.”

On the issue of hawkers within the CBD, the governor said he would bring order and opportunities within the town. He has called on informal traders and other stakeholders for a public participation forum to discuss a solution for hawkers.

“We are working to identify streets and alleys where they can continue to do their business in an orderly way. We are a pro-business administration and we intend to position Nairobi as Africa’s economic and entrepreneurship hub.”

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City residents enjoy some fresh-cut pineapple slices along Haile Selassie Avenue on August 24, 2022, being sold by hawkers. The newly elected governor Johnson Sakaja is to be sworn in on Thursday, August 25th and Nairobi residents are optimistic the new governor will do a better job of cleaning up the city, which has been neglected lately, and improves on the city to make it more business friendly and finally put an end to the many hawkers who have occupied every available free space in the city. Picture by Francis Nderitu

He added that his government had made progress towards creating a unified single business permit so that traders and SMEs do not have multiple licenses to trade.

To address the issue of frequent fires at the Gikomba Market, the governor said that the land on which Gikomba sits belongs to the county, and he has begun surveying the land to process the title deed.

For the youth, the governor said his government had resolved the disputes on constructing Dandora Stadium, and the contractor is back on site.

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