A gloomy mood engulfed City Hall on Wednesday morning- hours after Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko handed over lucrative functions to the National Government.
The move surprised both Sonko’s friends and foes.
They are unable to predict the future and do not know what the long term negative and positive effects are.
KRA will collect all revenues on behalf of the County and Nairobi must surrender almost three quarters of its entire budget to the National Government.
City Hall has an annual budget of at least shs 35 billion.
Several employees who arrived for work at City Hall looked confused as the reality sunk in that the National Government will oversee several functions.
“This was abrupt. It was not expected. There was no public participation and as a representative of the people, we were not consulted,” said Mt View MCA Maurice Ochieng.
Nairobi West MCA Maurice Gare said it was wrong for Sonko to hand over the functions to the National Government.
“Those are crucial departments and the Governor should have consulted us. This time Sonko is wrong,” Gare said.
However, it’s not clear who between the National Government and Governor Mike Sonko initiated the “bloodless coup,”
Was Sonko coerced? Intimidated, forced or he did it willingly? – only time will tell.
Karen MCA David Mberia said the National Government has done so because they MCAs have “failed”.
“We should have sorted out the mess long time ago. Now we have ourselves to blame. Let them come and take over everything because they have taken over all the key revenue generating sectors,” Mberia said.
On Tuesday, State House released a statement saying the functions of Nairobi County Government have been handed over to the National Government pursuant to Article 187 of the Constitution.
“In a land mark agreement signed at State House today, Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko and Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa in concurrence with H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta, signed an agreement, handing over functions of the Nairobi County Government to the National Government, pursuant to Article 187 of the Constitution,” read the statement by State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena.
The statement said the signing of the agreement was also witnessed by the Speaker of the Senate, Kenneth Lusaka and the Attorney General Paul Kihara.
The National Government, therefore, will take over the following functions of the Nairobi County Government:
ii)County Health services
ii) County Transport services
iii) County Public Works, Utilities and Ancillary services
iv) County Government Planning and Development
“This will ensure Nairobi residents receive services efficiently. The move comes as a breakthrough in the running of county services that had ground to a halt” said the Statement.
During the handover at State House, Sonko exchanged the agreement with Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa but his body language was “cold” suggesting he may have been forced to hand over the functions.
The handshake between Sonko and Eugene was not “firm”.
Sonko was arrested last year over abuse of office and charged in Court.
He was barred from office.
The Governor is fighting what he has termed “temporary insubordination”.
He is optimistic he will emerge victorious and continue to serve City residents.
In December 2016, the then Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero warned of a proposal to remove Nairobi from list of Counties and place it under the National Government.
Back then, there was a Bill in Parliament seeking to amend the constitution and reduce devolved units to 46.
Kidero warned then that transforming the County into a parastatal would kill devolution.
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