While this charge is most often made against City officials , it is also an accusation against those cicitizens who  fail to  play their part ; who are not paying their 50/- water bills ,those  littering the streets ,those grabbing land set aside for recreation parks, road reserves or schools and others who make the city the hell that it has become.

What we have in operation at the end of the day is the law of the farm. You do not reap where you did not sow. Forget to plant in the spring ? Do not expect to go harvesting in the summer. The classical example is the Nairobian attitude towards  Nairobi City Council services. The prevailing idea is that the solution to everything lies 'out there' with the central government' orwith City Hall. This idea is not only ridiculous, it is the main reason why very little progress is made at City Hall in spite of the best intentions of a few.

It is important that we address this issue holistically , emphasising the importance of the whole situation and the interdependence of its individual parts; not only crtiticising the NCC and the people of Nairobi, but attempting  lasting sustainable solutions to the council's problems. You may correspond with the Mayor and the Town Clerk through their website here.

Nairobi's  first and greatest ailment is one of a lack of proactivity- the failure of Nairobians and their Council to take responsibility for their city's destiny.

This as I see it,is the root cause of all the other problems. The breeding ground  is the notion that ' the solution is out there!' . For all of Nairobi's troubles, from the simple non-payment of a water or parking  bill, for the official engaging in corrupt activity , for the administration employing ghost workers and the subsequently unaffordable wage bills, for the worker who reports to work but fails to perform any of her duties; a dose of proactivity would do the whole of Nairobi a world of good.

Secondly, a sense of mission and and a  clear vision at the City Council are urgently needed.  The lack of  direction and purpose that infects City Hall's officials spreads to its stakeholders and prevents any sort of responsibility as there is no collective goal that individual parts are working towards.  What results instead is a free-for-all where honest citizens and officials end up looking foolish and suffering financial drain as others profit from the disorganisation. In the ensuing mess, the least responsible, the most outright gluttony is best rewarded.

While it is possible to work on eliminating corruption by charging its practitioners  in courts or fining them, this is merely 'hacking the leaves' rather than addressing the roots. These roots lie in the discovering a purpose and vision for the  NCC, explaining this vision to new recruits and old Council workers ; plus the City's stakeholders including not just the citizens and business community but also the central government.

Third, to entrench this vision and create an enduring sense of purpose, it is vital that organisational systems be set up to monitor progress and ensure unity of purpose. This is at the heart of all result-focused action, focused on the results that Nairobians want and that those that NCC aim at. Putting these interests in alignment, it is important  to create organisational systems that act in harmony to ensure goals are fulfilled to common satisfaction.

For a long time any such systems have basically shut down. From the statistics at hand NCC has not accounted for its finances  for close to 10 years. There simply have been no real financial management systems in place!! That is why cheques are written to the council but cashed by private individuals cash them.

Far worse, Nairobi has been operating without a strategic plan for over 8 years now ,leave alone the little fact that even the past strategic plan was not acted on This is a clear indication that even assuming good intentions,of which there were few, there was really very little chance of success where no blueprint had been laid out.

The situation pre-2003 was one with no goals, no urban plans, no research , no financial management systems i.e no corporation-wide budgeting and accounting systems in place, no human resource management systems, etc. Hence the hiring of over 50,000 people to do a 3,000 people job. It is hard to even understand how valuation of properties was carried out before.

That this was unsustainable is clear, as is the fact that turning this mess around will be a difficult undertaking.

The next article features the turn-around from the 3 dimensions, giving credit to the slow but sure task City Hall has taken on.