Nairobi will be a new city by December, water suppliers to be listed - Badi

Nairobi will be a new city by December 2020, NMS director general Mohammed Badi has said.

Speaking during KTN news on Wednesday, Badi said his team has been able to dig 93 boreholes in the last 100 days.

Badi said with the water bowsers they have, water is distributed for free to residents in informal settlements.

"The Nairobi CBD is undergoing a face lift and this is why we may have some garbage as the works is ongoing for the next 3 to 6 months. By December this will be a new town," he said.

Noting that he is not taking over Governor Mike Sonko's plans, Badi said NMS is merging those and the county's plans so that they implement them for the benefit of Nairobi.

Badi said they are in the process of taming the water menace that has hit the county.

"We have cartels that were frustrating efforts by the county government like water, electricity infrastructure," he said.

"NMS is in the process of registering all water suppliers that are operating knowing their sources of collection and where they distribute to so we know where they operate from ."

He said that Nairobi requires over 800,000 cubic metres per day but currently the city only has 525,000 cubic metres.

"This causes water rationing. They were people frustrating the system by closing the pipelines to go and sell.," he added.

On Monday, Badi stopped construction along 3rd Parklands Avenue by a developer accused of grabbing public land.

Workers at the site fled when Badi, accompanied by area MCA Jayendra Malde, Westlands MP Timothy Wanyonyi and police arrived at the site.

Badi said construction of a public hospital will begin at the site soon, which a developer had been building high-rise apartments on.

Badi took over the running of Nairobi with a promise to restore its lost glory.

The core mandate of the NMS will be to deliver services for the people of Nairobi.

President Kenyatta called on the NMS to bring sanity and dismantle the cartels that have hindered the development of the county.

He further promised the NMS that his office and the government will ensure that it achieves its goals.

The Nairobi Metropolitan Services has been tasked with streamlining urban renewal housing projects in Pangani and Jevanjee whose contracts were awarded in 2018 but are yet to kick off.