Africa-Press – Kenya. Nairobi Deputy Governor Njoroge Muchiri has revealed he will take up managerial duties if Senator Johnson Sakaja is elected on August 9.
Speaking to the Star on Friday, the corporate guru said he will prove that deputy governors can deliver without sabotaging their ‘boss’.
“Having a deputy governor being part of the cabinet is a plus because I will be able to also get to know how other departments are faring on. I will take up the CEC for Trade position as well as the chief city manager,” Muchiri added.
Kenya Kwanza Nairobi Governor candidate Johnson Sakaja had stated that Muchiri will be the Chief city manager as well as county Executive Committee Member (CeC) in charge of Trade.
Explaining why he will be chief city manager, Muchiri said Nairobi had different issues depending on the vast areas and needed to be addressed differently.
“A problem faced in Dandora is not the same in Karen and that is why together with Sakaja, we will divide Nairobi into five boroughs with each being under a manager who will report to me,” he added.
The duo intend to divide Nairobi into five boroughs to decentralise the county’s leadership.
Each of the five, namely; East, Central, West, North and South will be headed by city managers.
The Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2011 allows county governments to partition their areas and appoint city or municipal managers to be in charge of specific areas.
“Every borough will be handled differently since the issues will be different and no manager will have his hand in other boroughs. This will hinder self-interest, cartels and loss of public funds,” Muchiri added.
Giving garbage collection as an example, he said garbage contractors will be paid on the basis of how clean the boroughs are.
Muchiri claimed that currently garbage contractors are being paid on the basis of ‘verbal declaration’ of how many trucks have gone to the Dandora dumpsite.
“Reality is that they claim they have taken 10 trucks to the dumpsite but on the ground, the situation is different. That is how they have been in bed with the ‘system’.
If the area is not clean, then we won’t make payments. This is what we want to change,” he explained.
In his role as the Deputy Governor, Njoroge also intends to work closely with the Nairobi Residents Associations to ensure that services are brought closer to people.
He said each resident association will have representatives on the board of management of the boroughs.
“Having representatives on board is best because they will put on the table issues residents feel are important and will be taken into account by the managers, as the county government develop policies of development of each borough,” Njoroge said.
“They will contribute to the privatization of the services and that is what we call public participation,” he added.
At City Hall, the deputy governor will also be in charge of licensing which according to him, is among the biggest challenges faced in Nairobi.
“Once a person gets one license, another county officer will say that you are missing another and it’s a tedious and expensive process, especially to the people who are beginning to hustle,” Muchiri said.
Sakaja pledged to introduce a single QR-enabled permit which he said will prevent the need of having multiple licences and subsequently eliminate the hurdles of doing business.
We shall unify the licenses so that it will be easier and faster for people to pay revenue and it will improve the county’s collection.
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