Exactly one year ago, Johnson Sakaja took the oath of office to become the fourth governor of Nairobi.
He promised residents that in his tenure the capital would be restored to a city of order, dignity, hope and opportunity.
Together with his deputy Njoroge Muchiri, they vowed to usher in a new are of leadership that would serve all classes of people starting with hustlers.
One year on the Sakaja-led administration boasts of numerous achievements.
"It has been a remarkable year and I am grateful for the trust that you have placed in me and my team and for the achievements we have accomplished together," Sakaja said.
"My greatest highlight in the past year has been our government’s resolve to create a favourable environment for informal traders in Nairobi City county,"Muchiri said.
In the health sector, Nairobi county hospitals received their first batch of drugs after a three-year dry spell in February.
The county government distributed drugs worth Sh244 million to 118 health facilities after clearing a Kemsa debt of Sh185.1 million.
Sakaja also opened the first-ever intensive care unit at Mama Lucy Kibaki hospital in March, reducing numerous referrals to other facilities, especially the already congested Kenyatta National Hospital.
On finance, Nairobi's own source revenue hit Sh10.6 billion in the last financial year 2022-2023.
Despite being way below the target of Sh18.2 billion, it is the highest achieved by City Hall in the last five years.
In a bid to clean up the county's environment, City Hall has contracted 3,500 "green army" ( casual workers), 85 contractors in all 17 sub-counties and has also installed 11 air quality monitors.
In addition to that 1,075,987.61 tonnes of garbage have been collected around Nairobi. The city generating 3,000 metric tonnes of waste in a day.
Sakaja also introduced a new strategy of keeping the Central Business District clean by having sweepers work at night.
In the morning hours, the CBD is litter-free.
In June, at least 5,000 title deeds were issued where 42 were for public schools, 100 were for public facilities and the rest to individuals.
Pumwani Maternity Hospital got its title deed 11 years after lease expired and Ndakaini Dam, which is owned by Nairobi, got its title.
In March, Sakaja issued bursaries worth Sh1.025 billion to see 107,907 needy students through their four years of secondary education.
The amount was an increase from Sh640 million in the last financial year that benefitted 80,008 students.
Woodley and Joe Kadenge (formerly City Stadium) stadia are currently undergoing a major facelift to meet international standards at a cost of Sh600 million.
City Hall aims to create employment opportunities for the youth from the projects.
In June Sakaja launched Nairobi county's “Dishi na County”, a school feeding programme.
Ten central kitchens for the programme are approaching completion ahead of its launch next week.
The government also boasts of rehabilitating 50km of roads, 9,758 restored streetlights and installing 925 new street lighting poles.
But one year down the road, Nairobi's nightmare of traffic congestion persists. The CBD remains congested with matatus as unregistered bus stages come up almost every day.
On Tom Mboya street all the way from Afya Centre to the end at Koja bus station is filled with matatu stationed on both sides of the road.
The unruly matatus have take over the roads leading to heavy traffic in and out of the CBD all the time.
Hawkers still swarm the CBD.
They block roads and pavements, crowd out pedestrians, contribute to the garbage menace and block business entrances, thus denying legitimate traders business.
Sakaja had laid out plans to make the impossible possible by relocating the hawkers from town.
This will not only reduce congestion on the pavements and streets but also give them a specific place to operate from.
A City Hall team already inspected various lanes in the lower CBD and started demarcation works, as well as clearing dirt in the areas to make them habitable for trade.
However, no relocation has been made and hawkers are still taking over the little spaces available in the City Centre.
In the last year, Sakaja's administration revived plans to set up a recycling plant at Dandora dumpsite.
The move was supported by President William Ruto and it was announced that by June the Dandora recycling plant project would be launched.
However, this has not been the case.
In April, Governor Sakaja revealed that the bidding process was at the Request for Proposals stage and that the Expression of Interest stage had been successfully completed.
Thirty international and local firms submitted expressions of interest while only 17 met the requirements in the EOI documents and were shortlisted.
Nothing else is known about the plans to date.
City Hall in the last year has also attracted the attention of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The DCI is investigating suspected loss of money paid to companies that never supplied any goods or services.
Nine listed firms are believed to have been used in suspected money laundering schemes and fraudulent payments for services not rendered.
The DCI’s probe into the issue at City Hall came in July after Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o declined to approve the Sh1.5 billion expenditure requisitions they made to pay legal fees and development expenditure made without properly providing supportive documents.
The Nairobi county government leadership had planned to effect payments amounting to Sh2 billion and controversially selected 19 law firms as pending bills without proper documentation.
During his campaign, Sakaja said allegations of cartels were an excuse used by leaders who had failed.
“Cartels exist but they are not a threat. Just look at the past and you will realise they are just an excuse for poor leadership," he said.
However, the city cartels have emerged in the name of land grabbers threatening to take over public land.
Early this month, Governor Sakaja announced that city cartels had started to disturb the peacefulness witnessed in Nairobi.
"For one year Nairobi has been very calm and some people are not happy with this and have begun their politics. We fear no one including those using them politically. We only fear Nairobians who trusted us with leadership," he said.
It is now a wait-and-see on how Sakaja will handle the cartels.
With several fire cases in Nairobi, City Hall's responsiveness have been wanting.
The affected whether they are traders in markets or residents have been complaining of Nairobi fire engines arriving late.
And even after arriving late, most times the fire engines are without water.
This was the case of the Mutindwa fire in June, despite the market being less than five minutes from the new Kangundo Fire Station.
It was also same case for Toi market fire, which happened two days after Mutindwa.
Despite the misses, Governor Sakaja and his deputy Muchiri remain optimistic that Nairobi will change for the better under their leadership.
"With determination in our hearts and a shared vision in our minds, I am confident that the best is yet to come as we strive to make Nairobi work," Sakaja said.
"While we celebrate our accomplishments, we look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead. Together, we will continue to shape a brighter, more prosperous future for every individual in our great county," Muchiri said.
