A plan to fail: City MPs rudderless in fight against Covid

Despite being flagged as the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, Nairobi County’s political leaders continue to pull in different directions with minimal synchronised efforts in sight to contain the deadly virus.

Confusion continues to reign in the capital, even as more coronavirus-related cases and deaths are reported just days after President Uhuru Kenyatta fingered Nairobi as the worst-hit region in the country.

In a bid to slow down the spread of the virus, the President imposed a three-week ban on movement in and out of the Nairobi Metropolitan Area, alongside the coastal region counties of Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi.

Nairobi’s sorry state is compounded by a leadership crisis prompted by Governor Mike Sonko’s move in February to surrender some key functions of the county to the national government and the subsequent creation of Nairobi Metropolitan Services, headed by Director-General Mohamed Badi.

This development has exposed Mr Sonko as a lame duck governor, thereby creating three new centres of power in the Capital City.

Members of National Assembly representing 17 constituencies including two additional county legislators — Senator Johnson Sakaja and Woman Representative Esther Passaris — reportedly owe allegiances separately to Mr Sonko, Mr Badi and Kamkunji MP Yusuf Hassan, who is chairman of the caucus of Nairobi legislators.

The fourth camp, mainly comprising Jubilee-allied MPs, is said to exhibit direct allegiance to the central government headed by Mr Kenyatta.

Admittedly, the political fissures have greatly undermined efforts for a united approach to address the Covid-19 menace.

Accusing the governor of presiding over a dysfunctional county government, Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi confesses that the county is in disarray because of Mr Sonko’s one-man-show leadership style.

“Over the last three years that he has been in office, he has not called for a meeting involving the city’s elected leaders. As a matter of policy, Sonko never involves MPs in his development plans and it is unlikely he will be doing so any time soon even in the face of Covid-19 threat,” Mr Wanyonyi told the Sunday Nation.

But the governor has evidently been engaged in efforts against the pandemic — albeit without Nairobi MPs. And recently the county leadership met with Sonko promising action.

The county assembly further approved Sh1 billion for related interventions. But not much has so far been undertaken apart from the fumigation in Nairobi estates.

Because of the apparent uncoordinated efforts, the Westlands legislator says Nairobi MPs have opted to coalesce around Mr Hassan as leader of the legislators’ caucus.

Mr Wanyonyi explains that the MPs plan and channel their funding requests for projects under the aegis of the caucus.

However, Ms Passaris offers an assurance that all elected leaders are united in their development approach, including containment of Covid-19: “The question of disunity does not arise because the entire Nairobi leadership is united behind the new Nairobi Metropolitan boss, whom we recently met as a team.”

The Executive Director of International Center for Policy and Conflict (ICPC), Mr Ndung'u Wainaina, regrets Nairobi’s “tattered and deeply divided” political leadership has heavily compromised mitigation efforts against the spread of the pandemic.

“Each political leader is pulling on each side. The tussle between Governor Sonko and NMS Director General Badi involving the transfer of staff has further brought out, not just the mistrust in the governance of the county, but the fissures in administrative approach,” observes Mr Wainaina.

Noting that controlling the spread of the pandemic is governance issue “because it involves managing population, public order and public resources for mitigation purposes”, Wainaina singles out the Mombasa County government for demonstrating leadership towards this end.

The importance of containing the spread of the virus in Nairobi cannot be overemphasised. Besides being the country’s administrative capital and a commercial hub in the region, Nairobi houses hundreds of foreign missions.

If handled poorly, an explosion of the virus can have devastating effects on human life, the country’s economy and international standing.

“Failure to adequately contain the pandemic in the Capital City will send an ominous signal across the country and we cannot afford to let that happen,” Mr Sakaja told Sunday Nation.

The senator is optimistic the current challenges will soon be effectively addressed: “There are ongoing meetings — on daily basis to address this issue at the county and national level and soon we shall be rolling out an action plan.”

The legislator who, incidentally, is Chairman of the Senate’s ad hoc committee on the Covid-19 situation, says the proposed intervention measures mainly focus on the vulnerable communities in informal settlements.

And noting the County Government still retains the core functions of Finance and Economic Planning, “which moves the wagons of governance and delivery of services”, Mr Wainaina advises Governor Sonko and Mr Badi to work in harmony if they hope to contain the threat of the lethal Covid-19 pandemic and deliver other services to residents of the city.