Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has told off critics who claimed that he is the worst-performing county boss following a ranking by a local research firm, Insight Strategists Solutions (ISS) Africa.
In a statement on Saturday, Sakaja dismissed the ranking as baseless and unscientific noting that it gave no due consideration to material facts on the ground.
He noted that the firm did not take into account all of the factors that contribute to the performance of his county government, particularly the achievements he made within the past year.
"I see such ratings and laugh. Nairobi has collected the highest revenue in 5 years and paid Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) Ksh7,640 per month, as of August 2022.
"We have also built the first Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the second renal unit, and the first-ever Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in the county," Sakaja explained.
The governor also pointed out that he had done a lot for Nairobi residents despite being in the office for only one year and expressed confidence that he will deliver on his promises to the people of Nairobi.
"We have employed 2,500 Green Army, built 10 kitchens to feed 250,000 children, and some 88,000 children are on-boarded already.
"My administration has tarmacked roads, put up street lights, issued bursaries and scholarships worth Ksh1 billion in one year compared to Ksh3 billion in 10 years," he added.
The Nairobi Governor, therefore, wondered how Insight Strategists Solutions (ISS) Africa arrived at the ranking which he termed as a strategic smear campaign by those seeking to disinform and misinform the public.
"Currently, bursaries are issued at every school term. We have increased ward-based projects to 23 million per ward from 17, building markets and restarted projects stalled for the last 6 years etc, etc. Who did the ranking and what were the metrics?" he possed.
In a scathing response to his critics, Sakaja noted that the commitment to making Nairobi a better place cannot be distracted by people he insisted are pursuing their political ambition in the guise of rankings.
He promised to continue serving the people of Nairobi, noting that more development projects are underway in all the wards and across all estates.
"We reconstituted all hospital boards and employed CEOs for all Level 5 hospitals. We also paid KEMSA Ksh185 million that was owed in debt.
"My administration completed the stalled Dandora stadium and commenced works on City stadium, Woodley and Mwiki stadia. We have awarded Public Private Partnership (PPP) of Waste to Energy (45MW) at Dandora, and currently completing water projects to add 140 million liters per day," Sakaja explained.
Further, the Nairobi governor explained that he has secured Ksh16 billion in funding for the Northern Collector 2 and Maragua 4 to add an additional 220 million litres of water for Nairobi residents.
"We have done all these in one year, and we are just beginning. High-sounding headlines are incongruent with what the ground is like. Obviously, not everything is done in 12 months, but it is working. This year will be a whole new level," Sakaja promised.
The Nairobi County Governor also attracted support from unlikely leaders, including Azimio la Umoja Ward Representative, Robert Alai who observed that Sakaja has done more than expected of him.
"Sakaja came to office in the late 2022. In fact, the date of the official swearing-in is 25 August 2022. Nairobi City County Assembly members were sworn in on September 29, 2022.
"The governor has had his first budget in reading and passed July 2023. His budget is not more than 2 months old. Only one who does not understand would try to rank Sakaja based on the chaos of NMS and the old budget.
Alai assured that Sajaka will definitely be ranked at what he termed at the right time, noting that it is too early for those who want to
be governor to even think of campaigning against a new county boss who has just started working.
"I might not support Sakaja in 2027 but it's too early to even think of attacking him. To early to understand who you are going against unless we are campaigning for the sake of campaigning," Alai stated.
