NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 6 — City Hall has set in motion plans to operationalize five boroughs across Nairobi in a bid to cascade service delivery to the grassroots.
The newly proposed administration units will come into force in June 2024 with presentation of borough-level budgets before the consolidation of Nairobi county’s spending plan.
“As early as June 1 next year, we aim to streamline the bureaucracy,” Nairobi County Chief Officer in charge of the Boroughs and Administration Department, Lydia Mathia, told a public sensitization at a Nairobi hotel on Wednesday.
“The next budget is expected to be tabled at the borough level before being amalgamated at the county level.”
Under the plan Governor Sakaja’s administration will collapse sub-county units to form the Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern, and Central borough where City Hall will assemble decentralized service units.
Mathia said the county had already enlisted borough managers in readiness for the operationalization of the units under which Nairobi’s eighty-five wards will fall.
“Essentially creating borough boards that will be made up of the already recruited borough managers, ward MCAs, sub-county administrators and sector heads,” she said.
The ultimate goal, she said, was to decongest City Hall and avail services closer to residents in a bid to enhance efficiency.
Mathia noted that Sakaja’s administration was keen to address historical governance challenges that have impeded service delivery in the city.
“The closer supervision of resources and personnel will greatly inform the means of their deployment.”
She assured that the department will seek to accommodate diverse interests to create optimal service delivery units.
“We have tried to put people together along lines Social and cultural relations as they map out the diversified outlook of who a Nairobia resident is,” Mathiya stated.
By Tony Clark
