OSEN: What San Antonio in US reveals about Nairobi’s failure

Our country, Kenya, is politically awake, angry and energised. But the public’s political consciousness without competent governance is noise masquerading as revolution.

As young Kenyans chant “tutam” and “wantam”, it is legitimate to ask — both at the national and county levels — whether we are asking the right questions, fostering the right conversations and pushing for changes that are truly consequential.

Let us use Nairobi as a microcosm of the crisis facing Kenya. Though a geopolitically important capital, the city continues to drown in filth, traffic chaos and criminal neglect — failures that smaller cities in other parts of the world solved decades ago.

As a reporter who covered Nairobi, including its administrative and policy nerve centre — City Hall and the county assembly — and witnessed the garbage filth, dysfunctional markets, traffic disorder and poor management, it is evident that radical change is needed if we are to match the quality of smaller cities elsewhere in the world.

But judging by the cast auditioning to lead Nairobi, saying there is no hope would be a generous assessment.

Spend some time in San Antonio, Texas, then return to Nairobi and you immediately understand that our crisis is not poverty — it is management. One city works because systems function. The other survives on improvisation, political theatrics and public endurance.

Tucked deep in the south, San Antonio is the second-largest city in Texas and the seventh-largest in the US. This year, the city’s population is about 1.57 million, while the metropolitan area supports 2.6 million people and produces a regional GDP of roughly $222 billion (Sh28.67 trillion).

Nairobi, on the other hand, has about six million people, with a city GDP of about $35 billion (Sh4.52 trillion) and $106 billion (Sh123.69 trillion) factoring in the metropolitan area.

What separates the two cities is the management of basic affairs. Nairobi is a sea of filth and disorder, trapped in a ghetto mindset that impedes meaningful progress toward the overhyped goal of first-world status. From Kangemi to Gikomba, Korogocho to Kayole, Kibra to Embakasi, Kawangware to Uthiru, the shame of our people coexisting with trash is unconscionable.

And considering the mega scandals and flagrant abuse of public resources witnessed under successive devolved administrations — from the founding Governor Evans Kidero-led administration to the current regime — the failure of solid waste management is not for lack of funds or coherent plans. It is a potent mix of willful neglect, greed, corruption and failure by the rule of law to enforce what is right.

There is always the counterclaim that public indiscipline makes us a trash capital, but I contend that this is a lazy argument that collapses under the weight of its own shadow. Kenyans want clean streets, a hygienic and livable environment and the highest attainable standard of living, as promised by the constitution.

But given the abject poverty — which I argue is artificial and imposed by the political class — many Kenyans are merely surviving each day under these conditions.

With strong political goodwill and innovative thinking, solid waste management can be fixed in Nairobi. In San Antonio, waste management is handled by the city’s Solid Waste Management Department.

Residential services include weekly trash collection and bi-weekly recycling. The city currently has a 40 per cent recycling rate and offers residents two annual bulk pickups and free landfill days to manage large-scale waste.

Every morning at around 6.40am, anyone already outside will see city workers in pickup trucks, sweeping streets and parking lots, collecting litter to keep public spaces clean.

The city’s hygiene standards also extend to its water bodies. Authorities dedicate one week each year to dredging the main river alongside, the San Antonio River Walk — the equivalent of our Nairobi River — removing solid waste and invasive species that could make it smelly and an eyesore.

Turning to public safety, snatch-and-grab incidents and violent crime are rampant in Nairobi compared to San Antonio, where safety is managed by the local police department. While the American city has recorded a recent 13 per cent decrease in overall crime, its crime rate still remains above the national average.

To address this, the city increased its 2026 budget to fund additional police officers. Law enforcement is also known for clinical precision in applying rules uniformly, leaving little room for the personal factors that often breed corruption, compromise and laxity.

Another critical area of management is traffic congestion, a major problem in Nairobi that may require divine intervention to solve. In San Antonio, traffic flow is managed through a combination of high-tech centralised signal systems, proactive highway expansion and multimodal planning.

Key strategies include using the TransGuide centre for real-time monitoring of more than 1,400 traffic signals, implementing Traffic Signal Synchronisation and Modernisation to reduce delays and advancing Texas Clear Lanes projects on major highways and traffic arteries.

Compare that to the former City in the Sun, where we still rely on traffic marshals, broken traffic lights, chaotic boda boda movement and a matatu cartel.

I could compare many other areas, but the point is simple: Kenyans deserve a better quality of life than what we currently endure. None of this is impossible.

It requires leadership capable of crushing cartels, ignoring the usual sectarian noise whose profiteering model depends on chaos and dysfunction, handling public resources with probity and delivering for the people. We can do it.

The writer is a former reporter with the Star and a crisis communication expert based in the US