Nairobi County Governor Mike Sonko has now reached out to former premier Raila Odinga for help in his unending battle with the national government over takeover of Nairobi County’s functions.
The city boss has called on the ODM Party leader as well as Chief Justice David Maraga and the Senate to intervene and end incessant wrangles that have plagued the county.
The move is only the latest chapter of the deep-seated rivalry between Sonko and Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director General Mohammed Badi.
Sonko, who has been engaged in an on and off war with Badi since April, has appealed for urgent intervention to stop Nairobi County from going burst.
“My humble appeal now goes to the honourable Chief Justice, the Senate and Raila Odinga as great defenders of devolution in this country. We need your urgent intervention and rich wisdom in this crisis, before the County cripples down and is taken away by selfish individuals,” said Mr Sonko.
He says service delivery in the capital has been affected by greed, selfishness, diversionary tactics and smear campaigns.
With no love lost between the City Hall chief and Major General Badi, Sonko has accused Mr Badi of being partisan in his conduct and going against the spirit of the Deed of Transfer of functions “which was to complement and not compete with my administration”.
Sonko signed the Deed of Transfer on February 25, 2020 at the height of a spirited push by MCAs to remove him from office. He handed over Transport, Health, Public Works, utilities and ancillary services, county planning and development to the State.
“I thought they will focus on main areas where I needed help like addressing the decongestion, management and implementation of modern traffic and transport infrastructure system among other important areas to the benefit of the public in terms of service delivery and in accordance with article 187(2)b,” Sonko claims.
“However, NMS led by General Badi has conducted itself in a partisan political manner against the Deed of Transfer which was to complement and not compete with my administration,” he added.
At the centre of the row is control over the multi-billion shilling revenue basket as well as allocations from the government, which were previously under Mr Sonko.
A significant portion of this money was transferred to the newly created NMS.