I Handed over Nairobi to Uhuru After Benchmarking in the US, Says Sonko

Governor Mike Sonko has dispelled claims that he was coerced to surrender critical functions of Nairobi county to the national government.

Sonko, in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Thursday, said he was the one who initiated talks to transfer the functions to the national government.

He said he made the move after benchmarking in Nigeria and the United States on how they run their capital cities-Abuja and Washington, DC, describing Nairobi as a unique county compared to the other 46 counties.

“My government set out on a fact-finding mission that saw us benchmark and take lessons from other jurisdictions across the world including Washington DC in the US and Abuja in Nigeria.”

“From these case studies, we established that cities and metropolis the size of Nairobi are best served jointly by devolved units and Central Governments,” said Sonko.

Sonko said the agreement was reached after consultative meetings between both parties even as he expressed confidence that move will enhance service delivery to residents as well as reposition Nairobi as the region’s economic hub.

“It is this consultative process that led to the crafting of the historic and comprehensive agreement that we signed on Tuesday handing over the management of some of the functions of Nairobi County Government to the national government.” 

“As the County Government of Nairobi, we remain committed to continue serving the people of our great county by focusing more keenly on the functions and service areas that are not covered in our agreement with the national government,” he said.

“We believe our bold decision to collaborate with the National Government through the transfer of some of our functions will create positive governance precedence that will help strengthen devolution,” he added.

The national government will take over health, transport, urban planning, and public works services, according to the agreement.