Nairobi Metropolitan Services director general Mohammed Badi was known as the new sheriff in town in military uniform, tasked by former President Uhuru Kenyatta to bring order in the city.
He had served in the military for 39 years when Uhuru attended a function at the National Defense College on March 17, 2020, not knowing he will be put in charge the following day.
After two years in office, the curtain is falling on the Badi-led entity which is currently in the transition period to hand over the transferred functions.
Speaking on Saturday, Badi admitted that running Nairobi affairs was a difficult task because he was a military man given a political position.
“I have been running Nairobi for the last two years. It has been challenging and was a hot seat since. I was running a city whose services had been run down,” Badi said.
Despite all the challenges and criticism he got, Badi said he was able to deliver all the tasks assigned.
He attributed his success to the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation training he received while on a military course.
“Former President Kenyatta told me he wanted to see running water and hospitals in the slums to curb Covid-19 infections,” Badi said.
To rescue the city from further deterioration of services, President Kenyatta formed the NMS in March 2020.
The formation saw some critical functions of the county government handed to the unit.
The functions included county health services, transport services, public works, utilities and ancillary services and county government planning and development.
NMS prides itself in several notable projects that have somewhat changed the face of Nairobi.
To date, the unit has drilled 193 boreholes in strategic locations within the city’s informal settlements.
The boreholes saved slum dwellers the extra cost of purchasing water between Sh20-Sh40 per 20 litres jerry can.
Unpacking his legacy, Badi said NMS had constructed 28 hospitals with a major focus on disadvantaged areas.
Twenty of them have already been commissioned and are fully operational while the remaining eight are in the pipeline.
Badi said they experienced challenges while constructing the facilities due to the lack of space, especially in the informal settlements.
“These are areas which had never had health centres since independence. Some were easy to build because it was county land but in slums, it was hard. We had to build in schools or police stations,” he said.
Uhuru who had initially ordered the construction of the hospitals commissioned 15 of them to ensure the 3.1 million people living in informal settlements have access to quality and affordable health services with ease.
For the first time, the number of walk-in patients reduced in Kenyatta National Hospital and Mama Lucy Kibaki.
Badi said his entity managed to construct 500 km of roads within the slum areas which are tarmacked.
In 2020, NMS set up an asphalt (bitumen) plant along Kangundo Road which played a key role in the construction and recarpeting of roads.
“NMS has been able to contract China Roads and they are about to complete. We are happy to say that this is one of our successes,” he said.
Nairobi has been relying on asphalt from a plant on Nanyuki Road in the Industrial Area which produces only 150 to 300 tonnes of asphalt a day.
Using their contractors, NMS is renovating Uhuru and Central parks for recreational purposes
The two parks have remained closed until the works are completed and will be commissioned by the current regime at City Hall.
Badi said he leaves a happy man as he heads back to the military, knowing he brought services closer to people.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
