High Court to give direction over irregularities in Nairobi

A Nairobi High Court is expected to give directions during the hearing of a petition filed by activists over alleged illegalities and irregularities committed by Nairobi County Governor, Johnson Sakaja, in the formation of the Green Nairobi Company.

Last week, Justice Bahati Mwamuye directed that the respondents in the Case filed by activist Francis Awino, including the Nairobi governor and his Chief of Staff, be served with the petition by next Thursday and appear for mention in June.

“The Petitioner shall serve the Respondents and the Interested Parties in both hard and soft copy with the Petition and these Directions by close of business 17^th of this Month. Respondents and Interested Parties shall enter appearance and file and serve their responses to the Petition by close of business 16^th of May, while the mention is set on the 4^th of June for further directions,” Mwamuye ordered.

In his petition, Awino claimed that Governor Sakaja breached the law over various actions, including the formation of the Green Nairobi Company, the formation of a technical committee to approve building plans, and having people not in the planning sector sit in the committee, facilitation of irregular building plans, among others.

According to Awino, Sakaja formed the Private entity ‘Green Nairobi’ without the requisite public participation as stipulated in the constitution.

In the petition, he raised an alarm over the shareholding of the Garbage collection company as he argued that in case of leadership changes, the people may still retain ownership of a public-funded entity, posing a grave risk to the integrity of County governance.

He alleged that there are many irregularities committed by the Sakaja-led administration, as pointed out in the 2023/24 Financial audit report by the auditor general, Nancy Gathungu; hence, the creation of the garbage Company is a way of siphoning more public money.

“There is no doubt that the formation of the Green Nairobi is a calculated move to consolidate control over the lucrative waste management Sector, which is valued at approximately Sh1.8 billion annually,” the petition stated in part.

He added that by failing to conduct public participation, and only a few county officials have control of the company over the waste management system, it is already a financial irregularity.

Among other irregularities that the petitioner claimed the governor committed are failure to implement an integrated sustainable transport plan, which he claims has led to unstructured, haphazard, and illegal allocation of termini in the Nairobi CBD to Matatu operators.

He also accused the Nairobi Chief of Staff, David Njoroge, who is mentioned as the second respondent in the case, of illegally occupying land near the Australian Embassy in the Muthaiga area.

The petitioner alleged that Njoroge fraudulently obtained the land documents as he caused the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to conduct investigations and recover the parcel of land.

“With the Authority of the first respondent, the second respondent illegally occupied LR 214/274 in Muthaiga area and changed the property title to 214/365, all in a bid to occupy the property irregularly and unprocedurally. Despite ongoing investigations, he has illegally possessed the land and commenced construction without proper approvals,” Awino stated in the petition.

Awino asked the court to order the removal from office of the city governor over the breach of law and declare all building approvals made at the governor’s private office null and void.

He also urged the court to disband the technical approval committee, terming it illegal and barring unqualified and unauthorized individuals from attending building approval committee meetings.

The petitioner also pleaded with the court to issue a permanent injunction barring the county from issuing more terminals in the CBD.

Further, he asked the court to declare the formation of Green Nairobi illegal and unconstitutional, as he called for its revocation and declaration of being null and void.

This is the second petition filed over the formation of the garbage company, where the petitioners claim it is the formation of a bigger cartel by the governor with an already existing cartel in the environment sector.