List of issues awaiting governor-elect Johnston Sakaja after the swearing-in ceremony
Nairobi’s newly elected governor Johnson Sakaja has a full in-tray awaiting him as he takes his oath of office this morning.
The governor-elect will be sworn in on Thursday 25, in line with the provisions of the Assumption of the Office of Governor Act 2012.
The Act provides that elected governors must be sworn in on the first Thursday after the 10th day of the declaration of the final results by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
The first-term governor will have to confront the headache of garbage disposal, NMS, huge wage bills and pending bills among other issues that Nairobians are yearning for.
Also read: Why Uhuru could remain in office until 2023
Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS)
Mr Sakaja has NMS described the two-year term as a cocktail of hits and misses, ahead of his swearing-in ceremony on Thursday.
The NMS was established by President Uhuru Kenyatta in March 2020 and has been undertaking key functions which were transferred from Nairobi County.
Sakaja appreciated that NMS delivered in some sectors, especially putting up health facilities, and putting up boreholes.
“There is what has succeeded and there is what has failed. They have built hospitals which we now need to equip, they have built cabros in our streets, and they have also dug several boreholes,” he said.
Garbage
In the past few months, several things have been going wrong in the city, among them, heaps of garbage.
In the Central Business District, (CBD) lanes once used as shortcuts by city residents to connect them from one street to the next, have now become dumpsites thanks to uncollected garbage.
When you go to the estates, it is even worse. Commuters have been waking up to garbage with litter bins overflowing with the trash while others have been turned upside down, spilling garbage.
It includes decomposing waste, paper, plastic, water bottles, clothing, shredded paper and office waste.
Water shortage
Not a month goes by without a notice from the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Limited (NCWSC) advising residents that the city will experience a water shortage
In Nairobi, residents complain that they have been rationing water for too long.
All they want is the governor-elect to sort out the water shortage problem once and for all.
They say City Hall should by now have sunk boreholes all over the place to ease the crisis and ensure that residents live comfortably.
Also read: Ngei Estate residence to Nairobi Water: We won’t pay our water bills!
Matatu menace
Chaos continues with a surge in the number of undesignated matatu pick-up and drop-off points in the city.
In the Nairobi CBD, Tom Mboya Street, all the way from Afya Centre to the Koja stage, parts of Mama Ngina Street, Moi Avenue and Ronald Ngala Street are now under the control of the rogue matatu operators.
The problem has expanded from the city centre to residential areas, with roundabouts in Kariobangi and John Osogo Road in Dandora among the most affected.
Data from the National Transport and Safety Authority data, which was released last year, showed that only 272 matatu Saccos are registered to operate in Nairobi.
It emerged that the city has 420 unregistered, raising questions about their licensing and continued operations.
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