Editorials

EDITORIAL: City strike avoidable

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City Hall, headquarters of the Nairobi county. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The picketing by Nairobi county government workers on Wednesday was a throwback to the old days when City Hall was the epicentre of labour unrest in the public service.

Regular strikes, which would see heaps of garbage remain uncollected or dumped in the central business district, were rightly blamed on endemic mismanagement and graft under the city council authority.

The return of labour unrest at City Hall and garbage on the streets over delayed April salaries suggests that the management problems have persisted, even with the devolution of resources and power to the county government in the past four years.

Governor Evans Kidero and his chief officers have blamed the current standoff with their workers on the Kenya Revenue Authority, which moved to seize money allocated to City Hall by the Treasury over tax arrears.

But the crisis would still have been avoided if City Hall had managed its debts, internal resources and relationship with its partners like the KRA well.

Many Nairobi residents and businesses work hard to pay levies to the county government. The least they deserve is normal service.