MCAs want Badi team to take over stalled city projects

Nairobi MCAs now want the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) to take over stalled county government projects.

The MCAs have accused the county government of refusing to hand over some of the projects which are under the transferred functions, hindering their implementation.

In a motion by Clay City Ward MCA Samora Mwaura, the ward representatives have called on NMS to directly engage the contractors implementing the stalled projects and have them transferred to NMS.

Mr Mwaura argued that the lack of consensus between the county government and NMS is causing confusion among contractors.

He said the General Mohammed Badi-led office should move with speed to get all the necessary documentation from the contractors on the existing tenders on all capital projects under the transferred functions with a view to ensuring the contractors complete them on time.

“I will give an example of my ward, where there is a road project which is 75 percent done. It was advertised and the contractor bid competitively ...but the contract has stalled because of one signature,” said Mr Mwaura.

“Somebody somewhere is sitting on documentation for reasons better known to them. This is just one of the projects. We have very many capital projects that have stalled in this nature.”

Kilimani ward representative Moses Ogeto said MCAs are unable to supervise the Sh1.4 billion projects that are under the Ward Development Fund as a result of the lack of proper communication between the county executive and NMS.

He said it is now imperative that the contractors give the documents they signed with the county to NMS to avoid the projects becoming white elephants.

“In my ward, the contractor who is on site is supposed to do drainage but he left the site because he does not know who is going to pay him,” he said.

Ziwani/Kariokor MCA Millicent Mugadi supported the move saying that having the projects under NMS and the National Government will ensure Nairobi residents get quality services.

“We know that NMS has money and we will save contractors a lot of stress when getting their money. They need to know that when they finish their work they will be paid by NMS,” said Ms Mugadi.

Nominated MCA Mary Ariviza said some projects whose contracts were given in 2016 have been hampered because of failure to hand over their files.

“It is very important and I agree that we support this Motion that all the transferred services should be handed over to the NMS so that they are handled expeditiously by the arm that they were transferred to,” she said.