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{
    "id": 769146,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/769146/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 252,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "money that we invest, the grand plans that we have, the ideas that people bring together and the document policy papers we have, we will not be able to achieve the goal of having a world class 21st Century Capital for this country. Therefore, urban governance is the single most important plank. A lot of the problems are concomitant to lack of proper governance. For example, the lack of resources because of corruption, land grabbing, lack of proper utilization of public places, lack of water, et cetera . I am glad that it has been clearly spelled out here about some of the things that need to be done including minimum qualifications for leadership in urban areas. It should be a political leadership that might even necessarily be different from other areas. It includes specialised public participation. Remember public participation within urban areas is a bit different from the rural areas where you will not necessarily find a captive audience on a Tuesday afternoon who can contribute meaningfully. It means then we must device new ways to engage the public in an urban space. In Nairobi City, for example, people ask us how we campaigned and tried to convince the 2.3 million voters to vote for us. That is where technology comes in such as the social media and new media in terms of participation so that an average Nairobian can feel that the priority of development in their specific area has been taken into account. Otherwise, we have such a huge base of people who become apathetic to institutions of governance and leadership because they say these people do not talk to us and even if they have a point they do not listen. That means that we have to redesign the kind of levels of decentralisation in a space like an urban area. We need to move down to estate committees, formalise and engage them. Let them have elected leadership and recognise them. We need to have different small business associations that we engage with officially. We need to strengthen the capacity of Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) and those leading at the lowest level. Devolution is based on the principle of subsidiarity and nowhere else does it make more sense than in an urban space. Nairobi is a city of contrasts. The priorities just 100 metres or 10 metres away from each other are totally different. I have heard Members giving some of those examples. The priorities in Muthaiga and Mathare are very different and it is just a stone throw away. The same applies to Githogoro and Runda; Mountain View and Kangemi; Karen and Kibera and Kuwinda Slum which is inside Karen. We need to redesign and rethink the levels through which we engage the people who are living in a space such as Nairobi. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am glad that the Government has moved on to set up the Nairobi Metropolitan Authority which brings together, on top of Nairobi, Kiambu, Kajiado and Machakos. A lot of the solutions that we require for the city depend on those other areas. Nairobi City is growing and soon it will spread into those counties. Proper governance in a city like Nairobi, and I am glad that this has also been addressed in this Sessional Paper, includes serious and strong public-private partnership. There is so much that we can do just by the public sector alone in a place like Nairobi, Kisumu or Mombasa. We need to engage the private sector because they have also become beneficiaries of an efficient and working capital. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}