A year ago, it would have been a ‘lost bet’ to predict that the once flamboyant ‘rapper’ governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko could step down from his high ladder.
In the dead of the night, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed an executive order that all functions of the County government to be transferred to the Nairobi Metropolitan Services.
The shocking move was kind of expected, considering that most of the functions of the county government have been transferred to the National Government.
Despite this move being orchestrated by the President himself, Governor Sonko raised a red flag to protest overlapping duties and alleged harassment by the Abdi-led NMS, threatening to revisit the order and revoke its clauses.
The new development, now legally recognizes Nairobi Metropolitan Service as a public office and therefore a legal entity. Now headed by Major General Mohammed Badi at the helm, will now be Executive Office of the President.
The Deed of Transfer of functions executed between the National Government and Nairobi City County Government will now be supervised by the NMS.
NMS was formed in March 18, 2020, when the Deed of Transfer of Functions signed between Governor Mike Sonko and the State on February 25, 2020 was made.
However, the NMS has been faced with a legal challenge from the Law Society of Kenya, after it seeked to acquire a representative from the society, to be a member of the board.
LSK Chair, Nelson Havi declined to have the request approved, as he alleges that the institution is not under the constitutional framework.
“After careful consideration of the above, and in the absence of a statutory instrument establishing NMS, we have made the conclusion that NMS is not a body established or recognized in law,” said Mr. Havi.
“The same article further outlines state offices and state organs established under the Constitution. NMS does not make the list. It is therefore imperceptible from your letter under which written law NMS is established,” he added.
The standoff spilled over to a budget allocation tussle, where a request by NMS to have the governor sign 15Billion shillings to aid Major General Badi conduct services within the city, was turned down.
However, on Wednesday, Mike Sonko bowed to pressure from the government, allocating 3.5 billion of funds to the NMS.
“Today I have put the interests of the great people of Nairobi above the petty politics that have have rocked Nairobi for the last three months. As I have maintained all through, everybody MUST follow the law, especially those tasked with the implementation of the Deed of Transfer from the National Government.” – Said Mike Sonko.
The embattled governor has since not commented on the new developments, as the county looks forward to have some of its challenges eradicated, such as roads, water, and the garbage collection menace.
