Senior City Hall officers say they have been neglected by Badi’s NMS
The ongoing reorganisation of Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) has left a number of senior City Hall officers in limbo over their fate with no communication on their roles.
This comes after the senior officials were snubbed once again by the Mohammed Badi’s administration in last week’s redeployment of more than 6,000 county staff to the newly established office.
Last month, Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua seconded 32 senior staff from the national government to NMS, including chief officers, directors, secretaries and technical officers.
The move left the officers, comprising of County Executive Committee Members, chief officers and directors in the dark on who they should be reporting to and whether their services are still needed by the NMS.
A number of the affected CECs and chief officers, who sought anonymity, said their involvement in the newly established office remains unclear with no communication forthcoming from the Badi administration.
The four affected CECs and chief officers met the new office last month to present sector reports and budgetary allocations but that seemed to be the end of their involvement since the takeover.
One of the affected county ministers said they have not had any further contact with the new office and are left in the dark although their functions are now under NMS.
“We presented our reports to Mr Momanyi and that was the end of it. There has been no further communication. We have not been told if we will be part of NMS or what our role in it will be. We are still operating from City Hall and earning our salaries. I do not how they will work if we are not involved,” said the CEC.
Another CEC backed the assertions, saying after meeting NMS officers last month to brief them on their sectors, they have not been told what the future holds for them.
“We are reporting to our offices as we have been doing before although there is no communication from the new administration yet our sectors have been transferred to NMS,” said the CEC.
But Environment CEC Larry Wambua was optimistic saying they are covered in the new structure although supervision and control of funds will now be under NMS.
“We will continue working as normal. We work together and keep consulting especially now that we are engaged in garbage collection. We have been working with the seconded officers cordially,” said Mr Wambua.
The signing of the Deed of Transfer of functions on February 25, 2020 gave away four key county functions of health, transport, planning and development as well as public works, utilities and ancillary services to the State.
City Hall has 10 sectors including Finance and Economic Planning, Environment, Water and Natural Resources, Roads, Transport and Public Works, ICT and e-government, Education, Trade and Commerce, Health Services, Devolution and Public Service Management, Lands and Housing as well as Food and Agriculture.
The State takeover left only Education, Trade and Commerce, Food and Agriculture and ICT and e-government fully under governor Mike Sonko.