Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata and his Makueni counterpart Mutula Kilonzo Jr are examples of young leaders as agents of change. On the other hand, Nairobi’s Johnson Sakaja is a revelation of the worst that can go wrong from the stewardship of a young leader.

Nairobi is probably the dirtiest town in Kenya. It surely cannot be the cleanest in East Africa. Nairobi stinks.

Garbage is strewn all over the capital, leaving an eyesore of buzzing flies and wriggling maggots.

I have previously argued in this column for dissolving the Nairobi County government and replacing it with an entity not dissimilar to the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS).

I still hold onto that view. Strongly so. Nairobi is yearning for quality leadership. The capital city is bleeding. The people of Nairobi are in agony. Leadership is missing. Nairobi’s managers are absent on almost every issue.

The ongoing heavy rains have greatly exposed the underbelly of the Sakaja administration. Floods have brought life in Nairobi to a standstill, including the central business district.

Only this ending week, more than 10 people drowned in the county in just 48 hours. Burst sewers now overflow with abandon. Grasses have grown into bushes.

Hawkers have occupied city streets, causing both human commotion and traffic gridlock. A considerable percentage of Nairobi lacks clean drinking water. Other areas have no lights.

In short, nothing works in Kenya’s principal town.

Sin city

That is not all. Everything that can go wrong is wrong in Nairobi, right from healthcare and transport to housing, lighting and education. Air and noise pollution reign supreme within the bounds of Nairobi county. Narcotic drugs abuse and the open consumption of illicit poisonous alcohol is a great menace in the city.

Thousands of young Nairobians have been turned into zombies as a result drug abuse. These drugs are purchased and taken openly. Poisonous brews are also purchased and limitlessly consumed openly from sheebens strewn all over the capital city.

Early last year, Sakaja went missing for five days after a gas explosion razed buildings and left some children orphaned in the Mradi area of Nairobi’s Embakasi South sub-county.

When he did reappear, he never explained to Kenyans why he had gone missing for almost a week during the tragedy. However, he did promise while in Dagoretti that he would now concentrate on implementing his election pledges.

That has yet to be witnessed. To state that Nairobi is in a mess is surely an understatement.

Night clubs litter every corner of city estates, including residential areas. Some operate next to learning institutions, medical facilities and places of worship.

The same applies to the sale and use of narcotics, which happens openly, both day and night, unabated. Though it is an effort that involves numerous stakeholders, the drugs and alcoholic menace does not seem to bother the honchos at City Hall at all.

My view remains that Nairobi is too big for Sakaja to manage. The governor has his priorities invested elsewhere, not in the interest of the people of Nairobi.

Unlike Nairobi, Murang’a and Makueni counties are flourishing in progress, promise and hope. Youthful governors Kang’ata and Kilonzo are respectively moving their devolved units to unprecedented levels of development, especially in health and agriculture.

It emerged from a recent TV evening talk show last week that Sakaja has a poor working relationship with nearly all the 17 elected members of the National Assembly. Each of the lawmakers present expressed their frustration on how difficult it is for them to work with the governor.

Evans Kidero went down in history as Nairobi’s first governor. He is no doubt the oldest of the governors the capital city has had. Interestingly, even with all the teething problems of pioneership, Kidero also remains so far the best-performing in Nairobi.

Sakaja became governor by accident. Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi had been destined to become Nairobi’s fourth governor. But that was not to be. The legislator was thrown under the bus by his sponsoring party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

Due to the high-stakes deal between Raila Odinga’s ODM and the Jubilee Party of then President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2022, at which times the former Prime Minister was the compromise Azimio la Umoja coalition presidential candidate, Wanyonyi was forced to step down in favour of the Jubilee Party gubernatorial candidate Polycarp Igathe.

The move triggered a revolt within the ODM fraternity in Nairobi. Thus, a majority of Wanyonyi’s supporters – mostly from the former Nyanza and Western provinces – opted to vote for Sakaja as a way of registering their disgust at the decision taken by the ODM top brass. That is how easily Sakaja became governor.

Tone deaf

Though Sakaja has underperformed, there are even indications that he could be re-elected. Not because of his work but because of political convenience.

Sakaja’s underwhelming delivery of service appears not to disturb neither President William Ruto nor Raila, who struck a unity pact that has given birth to the so-called broad-based government.

Both Ruto and Raila have embraced Sakaja. They see no evil, hear no evil and will therefore say no evil regarding his leadership and performance.

All other leaders in Nairobi like Wanyonyi and Embakasi East MP Babu Owino who are interested in county leadership in 2027 have been kicked out of the way by Ruto and Raila, giving Sakaja a through pass to victory in the next election.

That is a tragedy. Only two and a half years since he was elected, Sakaja’s stewardship of Nairobi county is a failure. There is no indication that the situation is going to change in the remaining period. That is a double tragedy.

It is obvious that my desire for President Ruto to appoint an entity with a mandate similar to what we had under NMS will remain just that. A personal desire.

Though it had its own challenges and seamy side, by the time NMS handed over the reins of administration to Sakaja, there were some positives from the regime of Lt Gen (Rtd) Mohammed Abdallah Badi.

Today, Nairobi is a big mess. Kenya’s capital city needs a new broom. It may not come via an NMS-like organ. It should come in 2027 through the popular vote to straighten up matters.

Another five years of this lackadaisical delivery of service will be too heavy a burden to bear. Arthur Johnson Sakaja has failed the electorate of Nairobi as their governor.

-The writer is a Revise Editor with People Daily;