The ongoing chaos at City Hall, the Nairobi County government headquarters, is getting out of hand and must be addressed urgently.
It is unacceptable that the issue of striking workers has been allowed to go on for this long.
The workers, who are demanding that a deal on salary raise be honoured, have adamantly stated that they will stay put until their demands are met.
They have even threatened to deliberately litter the streets as a way of underlining their discontent with the City Hall leadership they perceive as unresponsive to their grievances.
As the more than 15,000 striking workers dig in, Nairobi residents are going without essential services. This unfortunate state of affairs is made more unnerving given that it is unfolding right in the capital city whose reputation we ought to jealously guard at all times.
City Hall officials ought to realise that Nairobi is not just any other city but the face of the country. It is mainly the first port of call for visitors, tourists and investors, and their impression of the whole country will be largely informed by what they see the minute they land in the capital.
To them, how we manage our city is reflective of how we handle the national affairs. Thus, when they are greeted with the kind of mayhem that is currently prevailing, they form a lasting negative picture regarding the whole country.
More fundamentally, Nairobi is the country’s key economic artery. When the city’s operations are paralysed as is the case now, the ramifications are bound to reverberate across the width and breadth of the country.
Therefore, anything that threatens to destabilise the calm, order and smooth operations of the city must be accorded the urgency it deserves, not only by the City Hall honchos but by the national government.
It is an indictment on the leadership that such issues - that could be resolved easily and amicably through negotiations - are allowed to sink to such a low level. The management of the county ought to be exemplary and be a shining example of how a devolved unit should be run.
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