In a letter to newsrooms, Nairobi Governor, Mike Mbuvi Sonko has loudly protested at the decision by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services to redeploy employees from City Hall.
NAIROBI TAKEOVER
NULLIFICATION OF THE MEETING CALLED BY THE NAIROBI METROPOLITAN SERVICES THROUGH THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
Saturday , April 4th, 2020
Upper Hill, Nairobi.
Foremost, I wish to register my great displeasure and disappointment, and that of the entire Nairobi City County Government, in the ATROCIOUS and REPUGNANT manner with which a few officials from the national government have chosen to pursue the implementation of the Deed of Transfer of Functions that I signed on February 25, 2020 at State House Nairobi, and witnessed by His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta.
FIRST, there is a Presidential Directive expressly prohibiting all public gatherings. It is therefore the height of impunity for the newly created Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), through the Public Service Commission (PSC), to purport to summon six thousand and fifty two (6,052) employees of the Nairobi City County Government to KICC on Monday and Tuesday next week to collect the alleged letters of redeployment, with total disregard to the great risk they shall be exposing to these employees as the country battles with the COVID-19 pandemic that has so far claimed four (4) lives and infected over 100 people.
SECOND, the Nairobi Metropolitan Services and the Public Service Commission has no current jurisdiction whatsoever over the employees of the Nairobi City County Government. As it stands, the responsibility still remains with the Nairobi County Public Service Board to notify its employees of the purported secondment. The Public Service Commission, on the other hand, should operate within its mandate, and can only second national government officers to the Nairobi Metropolitan Services.
THIRD, in his address on March 18, 2020 during the official hand over ceremony of the transferred functions at State House Nairobi, H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta was categorical that, the historic event marked the beginning of a partnership and collaboration between my administration and the newly created Nairobi Metropolitan Services to see to the smooth implementation of the Deed that was gazetted on February 25, 2020.
Clearly, there are few overzealous individuals within the national government who have been overtaken by excitement, and have chosen to break all known laws and the provisions of the Deed of Transfer, to pursue their narrow and myopic interests at the expense of the goodwill and good intentions held by the President and myself for the great people of Nairobi. The result is the anarchy that is quickly brewing, where all known protocols and procedures are being blatantly broken in the name of operationalizing the NMS. I want to assure them that that will never happen under my watch.
FOURTH, the Deed of Transfer that we signed is extremely clear on how communication should be conducted between the national government, the Nairobi City County government and the NMS. So far, all manner of individuals from the national government have continued to summon, call for meetings with and issue directives to County employees through telephone calls, SMSs, WhatsApp messages and other unorthodox communication channels that are outside standard government procedure. Worse, still, is the fact that most of this communication is done deliberately excluding me, in total contravention of the provisions of the Deed.
GIVEN the foregoing, as the Governor of Nairobi City County, I wish to direct as follows:
1. The public gathering called by the NMS, through the PSC, scheduled for Monday, February 6th and Tuesday, February 7th, 2020 is hereby CANCELLED until further notice. This is in line with the Presidential Directives issued to combat the spread of the Corona Virus.
2. The Nairobi City County government employees are hereby advised to ignore the threats allegedly issued by the PSC, on behalf of the NMS. Nairobi will not be governed by intimidation and threats that lack in legal standing, and the Nairobi County Public Service Board shall advise, in due course, the procedure and the process of the secondment, in a manner than shall address all the concerns that the Couty employees have raised with the PSC, through their Union, the Nairobi City County Government Workers Union (NCGWU).
3. ALL Nairobi City County government employees are hereby directed to ignore any further communication regarding the Transfer of Functions from any quarters whatsoever, whenever that communication is NOT in writing and copied to the Governor and the County Secretary.
4. The Transfer of Functions DID NOT amount to a takeover or dissolution of the Nairobi City County Government. As such, the County remains fully functional under the Constitution, decorum must be observed and maintained at all times in the implementation of the Deed of Transfer. That way, the full benefits shall be enjoyed by the people of Nairobi, and not a few greedy individuals who are out to satisfy their egos.
EVIDENTLY, there are a few individuals who have chosen to hijack the noble mission that the President and I embarked on to move Nairobi forward, but I wish to assure them that their sinister motives shall not succeed.
GOING FORWARD, I wish to thank the employees of the Nairobi City County Government for their patience and cooperation so far, and urge them to continue discharging their duties diligently, as we harmonise the process of the implementation of the Deed of Transfer, to ensure that their welfare and concerns are well addressed.
Signed,
H.E. Mike Mbuvi Sonko, EGH
GOVERNOR, NAIROBI CITY COUNTY
