Nairobi City Council gets ISO award for service delivery

The City Council of Nairobi was on Tuesday awarded International Standard Organisation (ISO) certification for service delivery.

Although residents of Nairobi have long accused the council of providing poor services, with complaints ranging from water shortage, poor street lighting, bad roads, land grabbing and corruption, outgoing Town Clerk Philip Kisia said tremendous achievements had been realised in the last three years, hence the award.

Speaking during the presentation of the certificate at City Hall, Mr Kisia explained that his team had brought reforms in five key sectors, including finance, information communication technology, planning, asset valuation and human resource.

He said his mandate when he joined the council three years ago was “transformational leadership”, saying he had been able to dismantle cartels that had deep-rooted systems in the council.

He cited the issuance of single business permits, saying it now takes one day to process these instead of three weeks when the cartels reigned.

Mr Kisia, who is leaving the council to run for Nairobi governor in the next General Election, said the planning department was ranked among the worst in Africa when he took over but is now ranked first in sub-Saharan Africa and 35th worldwide by the World Bank.

“ISO certification is not about the certificate but changing the way things are done from now henceforth,” Mr Kisia said in his last engagement as town clerk on Tuesday.

He said though he received negative publicity, he had been able to pay off debts amounting to Sh4 billion and the council can now sustain its huge payroll of about Sh580 million a month.

He also said the council revenue would increase by Sh5 billion once the e-payment system is rolled out in the next few weeks.

Mr Kisia said he had also addressed the issue of retirees’ dues, which were pending from 2005, by paying out about Sh500,000 million.