Nairobi governor Mike Sonko has explained why he surrendered certain functions of the county to the National Government.
On Monday evening, Sonko surrendered key functions of the Nairobi county to the national government.
The four critical functions to be under the national government include health, transport, public works and planning service.
"..unlike other Counties, Nairobi being our nation’s seat of power and the country’s commercial capital, its needs are unique and calls for greater partnerships with other stakeholders, key among them being the National Government," Sonko said.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Sonko said that in order to address the unique needs of Nairobi, his government set out a fact finding mission.
Sonko says that they benchmarked and took lessons from other jurisdictions across the world including Washington DC in the US and Abuja in Nigeria.
"We established that cities and metropolis, the size of Nairobi, are best served jointly by devolved units and Central Governments," he said.
"I initiated discussions with the National Government with a view of finding a sustainable approach to service delivery that leverages both on the County and National resources and competencies."He said.
Sonko said the agreement signed will not only help enhance service delivery in the city but will also reposition Nairobi as the economic hub of the region.
"...my government will ensure that Nairobi regains its famed status as the “Green City in the Sun” among other targets that we have set for ourselves," he said.
He further said that "we believe our bold decision to collaborate with the National Government through the transfer of some of our functions will create positive governance precedence that will help strengthen devolution."
According to the Constitution, 1) A function or power of government at one level may be transferred to a government at the other level by agreement between the governments if:
(a) the function or power would be more effectively performed or exercised by the receiving government, and (b) the transfer of the function or power is not prohibited by the legislation under which it is to be performed or exercised.
