Nairobi County to lose four key functions in BBI

The Nairobi County government will lose four key functions to the national government if the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report is adopted, an indication that the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) may be here to stay.

The report, launched on Wednesday by President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM Party leader Raila Odinga, proposes that the functions of health services, county transport, county planning and development, county public works and firefighting services and disaster management be taken over by the State.

This will be made possible by amending the Fourth Schedule of the constitution to provide that the functions and powers be transferred to the national government.

The functions are currently run by NMS headed by Major General Mohammed Badi after Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko transferred the same to the national government in February this year.

Under the Deed of Transfer, four county functions of health, transport, planning and management, and public works and ancillary services were transferred to the national government.

This gave birth to NMS, which was established in March, to run the transferred functions with an annual budget of Sh27 billion for a period of two years.

In essence, this means that NMS will continue to be a department under the national government to execute the functions on behalf of the county government, taking away considerable power from future governors of the city county.

In June, President Uhuru Kenyatta in a revised executive order, added NMS as one of the offices falling under the Executive Office of the President entrenching the new office as a public office.

This now means that NMS will be funded directly by the national government and have recruitment of its workers done directly by the Public Service Commission.

The report further proposes an amendment of article 200 of the Constitution to require that Parliament, within a year, to make legislation to provide mechanisms for the carrying out the said functions.

“Clause 66 of the Bill proposes to amend the Fourth Schedule to provide that functions and powers on county health services, county transport, county planning and development, county public works and firefighting services and disaster management relating to the Nairobi Capital city shall be distributed as functions of the national government,” read in part the draft bill.