Nairobi residents should now expect better response to emergency and fire incidences after City Hall received 26 new fire engines.
The trucks from Somati Vehicles under the Official Aid Funded Project financed by the Government of Belgium were flagged off by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday.
Governor Mike Sonko said each of the 17 constituencies in the city will be allocated one fire engine.
Gikomba Market, which has experienced several fire incidences in the recent past, will be assigned two fire trucks.
"Today’s launch of fire trucks will put to rest concerns that the previous county government had failed to acquire firefighting equipment despite numerous tragedies."
Sonko said the equipment had long arrived at the Port of Mombasa and continued to incur costs in Sh27.6 million owed to Kenfreight Ltd as at August 31, 2017.
"Upon assuming office, I initiated negotiations with the freight company, and they not only discounted the amount owing to Sh24 million, but also stopped billing storage and handling charged from September 01, 2017."
"On my part, I have approved their payment so as to fasttrack the discharge of the equipment to the county," he said.
Sonko announced that Soulco Kenya Limited will be soon start constructing two ultramodern fire stations in the city under the same finance arrangement from the Belgian government.
One will be in Ruaraka on a parcel of land donated to the county by the East African Breweries Ltd and the other at the City Inspectorate Training School in Dagoretti.
Sonko said that recruitment of 300 young, energetic and vibrant firefighters to replace some of the aging will start before the end of the year.
He said that the county will soon launch ambulances for each and every Sub-County and that plans are also underway to construct hospitals in all the wards within the city.
The county, he said, will also install water points and water tanks across the county to be used during fire outbreaks.
The city boss also announced that the county would also soon advertise recruitment of 1,000 traffic marshals to manage traffic flow within CBD and 200 cleaners to clean the city centre.
"My administration is working on improvements on garbage collection. With most contracts expiring by end of October, I wish to warn the cartels that only genuine companies shall be contracted in accordance with the public procurement laws," he said.