Nairobi News

The much hyped Mass Transit Bus System, which aims to give city residents affordable transport may not take off, thanks to a stand-off between the man in charge of county transport and MCAs.

The MCAs are threatening to force transport chief Evans Ondieki out of office through a vote of no confidence next week, citing his alleged mishandling of the bus project.

Mr Ondieki on his part insists that his problems are being fuelled by powerful forces within the county government and that the MCAs are mere pawns in vicious political power games for the control of the city.

It is because of these power games within Kidero’s cabinet that certain things are not happening.

One is the repair of dilapidated roads. Even after the MCAs forwarded a list of five roads they wanted repaired, nothing has happened. The infighting has also put paid to plans to light up the city because one arm of the executive approves them only for another to block it.

Mr Ondieki is on record accusing senior officials of frustrating his efforts to streamline transport.

Yet it is not only Mr Ondieki who is at war with his colleagues.

Dr Kidero’s battles with Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko are well documented. And so are Sen Sonko’s fights with Nairobi Women Representative Rachel Shebesh and a section of MCAs he claims are allied to her. He has openly bragged about how he will ensure she is cut down to size.

Even the Assembly is divided. Only recently, MCAs allied to the Jubilee Coalition threatened to sabotage a project which would have seen each ward receive millions of shillings for development simply because their Cord colleagues wanted the relevant committee to be chaired by one of their own.

In all this, the loser is the ordinary Nairobi resident who is denied essential services.

All that Nairobians want is service delivery — and not the endless bickering of our so-called leaders.