BY GOVERNOR MIKE SONKO
As the year ends, I look back and marvel at how gracious the Lord has been to me, the Nairobi City County government and all the great people of Nairobi.
This is despite the challenges we have had to endure, a lot of negativity and sponsored smear campaign to make my leadership and administration look bogus.
Specifically, I wish to highlight the following, amongst the many successes we accomplished this year.
- FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: According to the Controller of Budget report for the Financial Year 2018/19, our overall Own Source Revenue collection increased to 10.25 billion shillings, up from 10.11 billion shillings in the previous year, marking an improvement of 1.4% and the highest collection by any County in Kenya.
Our detractors some of them through a press conference released in parliament reported that there was massive corruption left, right, Centre which saw our own source revenue decrease to 7.9B.
This was a lie and propaganda of the year in a public live Tv. Attached here with and marked as Annexture One is a full report by the controller of budget which was released late this year.
- WAGE BILL REDUCTION: over the same period in review, our wage bill reduced by an impressive 7.4% to 13.74 billion shillings, down from 14.84 billion shillings in the 2017/2018 FY.
- DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURE & ABSORPTION: In the 2018/19 FY, our overall development expenditure more than doubled to 5.9 billion shillings, up from the 2.18 billion shillings spent in the previous year. Our overall development budget absorption rate stood at 78%, placing us among the top five counties in development budget implementation, and at 100% for the Ward Development Fund.
- ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT: To demonstrate our commitment to improve the dilapidated road infrastructure in Nairobi, my administration disbursed 800 million shillings to the Kenya Urban Roads Authority in the FY 2018/19. This amount was increased to 1.5 billion in the current financial year. This is over and above our internal road infrastructure development investment to ensure more roads are done within the shortest time possible. So far, my administration has done over 123 kilometers of roads in the last two years, and hundreds more are earmarked in the next two financial years.
- HEALTHCARE: There is no doubt that today, the Pumwani Maternity Hospital is one of the best maternity facilities in East and Central Africa. This is as a result of my concerted efforts to improve healthcare in Nairobi, that saw massive developments and improvements in, among other facilities, the Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, Mbagathi Hospital, Mutuini Hospital, the first of its kind TB Centre at the Kangemi Health Centre, amongst many others.
- ENVIRONMENT PERFORMANCE: In the 2018 NEMA Environment Performance Index (EPI), Nairobi County emerged No.1 with a score of 75, way above the national average of 56. This comes to underscore our investment in and commitment to improve our environment to make Nairobi a globally competitive city that is habitable.
- WORLD BANK FUNDED PROJECTS: In May 2019, the World Bank praised my administration for its “enthusiasm” in implementing the NAMSIP projects that had stalled under the previous administration. Under NAMSIP, we have constructed markets and fire stations worth over 18 billion shillings, all of which are either complete or near completion. In a project review meeting I chaired on December 03, 2019, the Bretton Woods Institution committed to finance Nairobi under NAMSIP 2 due to our exemplary performance.
- DANIDA FUNDED PROJECTS: In a letter dated October 23, 2019, DANIDA listed Nairobi among the few counties that had satisfactorily utilized their funding for the healthcare sector. For this, the first tranche of their disbursement for the FY 2019/20 has been done to support our elaborate plans to improve the public healthcare system in Nairobi.
- FOOD SECURITY: In October 2019, Nairobi beat 105 other cities in the Milan Pact Awards to scoop Position One in the Social & Economic Equity Category in the implementation of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact. What this means is that my administration is committed to ensuring the right quality standards are maintained for the food that is consumed by all our residents.
- ELIMINATING GHOST WORKERS: For many years, City Hall was known to be the home of “ghost workers” where thousands of people, including the dead, used to earn salaries running into Billions of shillings every year. However, for the first time since independence, we launched the Biometric system that weeded out nonexistent staff, albeit amidst massive resistance. My administration remains committed to maintaining lean and efficient workforce that can deliver timely and quality services to the great people of Nairobi.
- WAR ON CORRUPTION: According to the EACC National Ethics and Corruption Survey 2018 Report, for the first time Nairobi was not among the top 20 most corrupt counties, with residents recording improved infrastructure and service delivery.
- INTERNATIONAL POLICE ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP: On the 10th day of July 2019, I was privileged to receive the prestigious honorary membership into the International Police Association (IPA) for my role in fighting crime in Nairobi and reforming criminals. This is in line with my personal commitment to create a better society that guarantees a second chance to all people.
- WAR GRAVES MEDAL: On December 2nd, I was awarded a medal by the Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for my efforts to recover their grabbed land at the Kariokor War Memorial site.
- VOLUNTEERISM AWARD: on December 5th, the UN Volunteers, alongside a host of other organisations, awarded me with the prestigious Volunteer Champion of the Year Award in recognition of my tireless efforts to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate in our society in my personal capacity, besides being the Governor of Kenya’s capital city.
- COMBATING THE HIV-AIDS SCOURGE: On December 18, 2019, Nairobi City County was awarded as the “Best Performing County” for positive achievement in the UNAIDS targets of 90:90:90 in the Adults Category. This is over and above the 500 million shillings grant I secured in January 2019 from the Elton John Foundation that will go towards the provision of self-testing kits in a programme aimed at stopping new HIV infections by 2030.
- SONKO RESCUE TEAM AWARDED FOR ROLE IN SDGs: On Friday, December 20 2019, the Sonko Rescue Team was awarded a certificate of recognition by a caucus of the NGO Council, the UN-SDGs, the Kenya Platform on Climate Governance, amongst other organisations, for their exemplary works in community services and their role in implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. SRT is a non-profit Organization that I founded to support my efforts to serve the less privileged in our society and complement government efforts in responding to emergencies and disasters.
- WORLD HUMANITARIAN AWARD: On December 21st, I was deeply humbled to receive, in absentia, the International Humanitarian Award and the World Peace Messenger Medal by the World Peace and Diplomacy Organization at a Gala Event held in Los Angeles, USA. The Awards were in recognition of my long-standing efforts to build peace through reforming and rehabilitating former criminals and supporting them to establish sustainable income generating activities and integrate them back into society. The Awards were received on my behalf by Ms. Betty Adera, the Nairobi Peace President.
- GOOD DEEDS AMBASSADOR: The Good Deeds Day Foundation based in Israel appointed me as their Good Deeds Day Ambassador for Kenya, for a period of three years.
The list of our achievements for the year 2019 is long, and I am grateful for the many awards that I, and the Nairobi City County government have received in recognition of our commitment to service delivery and transforming lives.
Sad thing is that we are no longer going to engage as we used to- due to the bail terms imposed in my graft case but remember Silence and prayers are the best weapon in any War.
Happy New year to you all and may the cheer of the season last in your hearts through a prosperous 2020.
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