Nairobi MPs have claimed that governor Johnson Sakaja is unfit to hold office, and that is why there are those who are seeking to unseat him in the 2027 election.
Some of the MPs were featured on Citizen TV, where they revealed that Sakaja had done nothing constructive in his more than two years in office, warranting his one term as governor.
The MPs further highlighted why it was difficult for them to work with the county government, with only two years remaining to the next general;
- Lack of cooperation between the County Government and MPs
According to Lang’ata MP Phelix Odiwuor aka Jalang’o, there is in no cooperation and unity between the county government and MPs. The lawmaker said that the county is doing things in their constituencies without any consultations leading to frictions and even stalling of development projects. He said the county doesn’t inform them on development plans or ask what is needed.
“When a guest visits you and brings you something, and maybe you have the thing already he will not have helped you. If we can cooperate and work together, as the county government and the 17 constituencies, we can have better development,” he said citing a case where he was forced to stop a road construction plan after the area MCA said the county government was in charge of the project.
To date(two years later), Jalang’o says the road is yet to be improved.
2. Politics
Starehe MP Amos Mwago on his side said that politics is another hindrance for Nairobi MPs to work with Sakaja.
“When we were elected we were in Azimio but he brought politics as he would discriminate us. If you don’t support him politically, he wouldn’t listen to you,” Mwago said.
He added that a lot of development projects in his constituency had stalled because of him frequently criticising the governor.
“After noticing that we were not being accommodated, I decided to focus on my constituency and do projects that I can because I am not getting any help from the county government,” he said.
3.Sakaja’s unavailability
Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi noted that Sakaja is usually unavailable and he is more often outside the country.
“He is outside the country more than inside. He visits cities in foreign lands and sees how well they have been planned. I wander why he can’t emulate the same in Nairobi,” Wanyonyi said.
Efforts to get in touch with him have also proved futile.
“I’ve tried calling Sakaja but he doesn’t respond, my phone calls go unanswered. We have tried everything. We have only met once with him as Nairobi MPs, and asked him to give us his daily programme so that we can work together,” Wanyonyi said.
He added that Sakaja has discriminated his constituency in terms of development.
4. Governor’s reasoning and lack of humanity
Babu Owino, MP Embakasi East, explained that it is difficult for them to work with Sakaja because of his reasoning. He cited the incident where Sakaja requested President William Ruto for a machine that produces 1 million chapatis in a day.
“When the president was touring Naiorbi to launch projects by MPs but surprisingly, there was no single project from the governor except the Chapati project. The governor has seen that those cooking chapati should have their jobs taken by the machine yet that is how they earn a living,” he explained.
He added that when Sakaja calls for meetings, he only talks about partying.
“We don’t have time for that, those are things we did at the university,” Owino said, further detailing how heavy leadership is.
He also cited incidents of county council officers harassing and frustrating traders.
“You have a Kshs42 billion budget to construct a market so that they can go there, also don’t disrespect humanity by spilling food, there are those who are going hungry. Where did humanity go to in our county government,” he said.
“You said we should cooperate with the governor, who is supposed to deal with the garbage issue, but he takes the garbage and spills it at Stima Plaza. He takes sewage and pours at CBD. Do you want us with our sound mind, to sit down, with such a person?” Owino posed.
5. Fake promises
According to Babu Owino, they met Sakaja at parliament’s bar where he asked them to forward all their problems in their constituency.
“I wrote problems of Embakasi East and filled a foolscap. We gave the governor and he said that he will handle of them, till today,” he said, agreeing with Wanyonyi that Sakaja can’t pick their calls.
