Nairobi to name road after Haji
Nairobi County could honour the late Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji by renaming a road in the central business district (CBD) after him.
Nairobi County Assembly Majority Leader Abdi Guyo said he will move a motion before the House next week and urged the county executive to effect the plan.
Guyo, who doubles up as Matopeni/Springvalley MCA, said the plan will be a befitting tribute to a man who has been a peace ambassador in the country leading to President Uhuru Kenyatta choosing him to chair the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) taskforce.
As the chair of the taskforce, Guyo says Haji played a crucial role in the BBI Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which aims at putting an end to perennial tribal animosity every election cycle as well as dealing with issues of marginalization.
Haji passed away on Monday at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi after battling illness. He was 80.
“His contribution towards the BBI report cannot go unnoticed especially to the people of Nairobi and having a road in the city renamed after the late Senator will be a greater way to remember the great nobleman,” said Guyo.
A number of roads in Nairobi have been renamed by City Hall in honour of men and women of great standing in the country including Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, Cardinal Maurice Otunga and Charles Rubia, among others.
During Mashujaa Day celebrations in 2016, former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero renamed Forest Road after the late Maathai in recognition of her tireless campaigns for a safe environment.
Kidero also renamed Cross Road in the CBD after veteran multi-party politics crusader Charles Rubia. The road between City Hall Annex and Cardinal Otunga Plaza to Uhuru Highway was also renamed Cardinal Otunga Road in honour of the veteran catholic bishop.
After a motion calling for the renaming of a road after a prominent person is passed by the assembly, the assembly’s implementation committee writes to the county executive communicating the approved motion.
The executive will within three months effect the change or reject it. However, the road to be renamed must be a road under the county government and not national government.
“The law requires that within three months of the approval of the motion, the motion should be effected or rejected,” said Minority Whip Peter Imwatok.
“We support the motion fully and I am the seconder of the motion. We will make sure the county executive identifies a road within a week and immediately rename it after Haji. He was the father of BBI,” he added.
Guyo described the late senator as a man of high standing in the society whose spirit of servant-leadership he espoused is admired not only by Nairobi leaders but by most politicians across the country.