Mps in Nairobi county have raised concern over their growing disconnect with the city governor, blaming it on under development.

The Members of Parliament in Nairobi said that they have a poor working relationship with Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja.

They accuse the county boss of not giving them ears on matters to do with development at constituency level.

This emerged during a televised show this week bringing together six members of parliament to share their experiences since they were elected.

The Mps were led by Embakasi East Mp Babu Owino and his Westlands counterpart Tim Wanyonyi both seeking to unseat Governor Johnson Sakaja in 2027.

Other legislators were Embakasi West’s Mark Mwenje, Kibra’s Peter Orero, Lang’ata Mp Felix Odiwuor alias Jalang’o and Starehe Mp Amos Mwago.

The lawmakers said while there was little time to deliver for the city residents, over two years now there have been frosty relationships between them and the current county administration.

“I am proud as leader of the Parliament but on the county level things are not good because, at the constituencies some projects are going on but at the top we are not proud because we have been abandoned like orphans,” Embakasi East MP Bubu Owino said.

Adding that, “When I was elected to serve Embakasi East, the electorate expected that I would change their lives in terms of developments,”

The Mp, in reference to the recent tour by President Ruto in Nairobi in company of governor Sakaja citing all the constituencies that the President toured there were ongoing projects but there was no project by the county.

“The only thing that we heard was him (governor) requesting the President for a chapati making machine , yet we have people who make chapatis so as to educate their children,” Owino said

He explained that Nairobi runs on a budget of 42 million in Nairobi and out of that about 5 billion is set aside for schools but parents also chip in Sh5 towards the school feeding programme.

“The problem is that Sh5, in fact construction of kitchens for the programme was going for Sh57 million each. If the governor was working as he ought to be no one would even be interested in vying for the seat but we have seen that there is an opportunity to serve better,” he added

Further, Owino claimed that the county boss is rarely available for them and on one of the occasions, the county boss had a meeting with the Mps to share their problems but he has never delivered since then.

Tim Wanyonyi who has also expressed interest in the gubernatorial seat observed that despite their efforts to push for allocation for development in the city, there was nothing much happening at the moment.

“As the Mps we don’t have executive powers, the governors have executive powers with a very huge budget for development,” observed Wanyonyi

In support, he said the recent report from the Auditor General showed that nothing is spent on development funds in Nairobi wondering why there is no budget for development in Nairobi.

Wanyonyi said it was shocking that counties like Narok were ahead in development and revenue and own source revenue claiming such funds in the and chances were city collections were being pilifered through illegal accounts.

“I have nothing against the governor but what we are saying is the people of Nairobi are crying yet we have been elected to solve problems of the people,” said Wanyonyi

Adding that, “I’m just telling him the truth. If your officers are not working fire them and if you are not working improve and deliver quality services to the residents,”

Embakasi West’s Mark Mwenyje, while admitting that things were not working in the city as ought to be, insisted that they as legislators have an opportunity to solve the problems.

“There’s a problem in how we relate with the county and that might not be limited to Nairobi alone, we give the allocations but the expectations on the ground does not reflect,”

“What I can do as an Mps through CDF like roads can be seen but our counties get alot for the same development but the relationship between national government and county is where the problem comes in,” he said.

Mwenyje admitted that Nairobi County is still grappling with sewage, poor roads among others that they thought could be addressed by the county.

On his part Lang’ata Mp Felix Odiwuor observed that all 17 counties in the city are stakeholders in the county and for the governor to deliver quality services he must cooperate with all the Mps adding that this is still lacking in the city.

“Lack of that cooperation and consultation between us and the county has made things stall in Nairobi but still can restored,” Mwenyje noted

Starehe Mp Amos Mwago said there were a lot of politics derailing development in the city claiming that some leaders like home who were not elected through the ruling party were sidelined.

“There’s a lot of projects that have stalled for instance in my constituency, maybe because I frequently critique the county, we tried to have a sit down sometimes back but nothing much came out of it, we now work on our own to deliver what we can without involving the county,” Mwago observed.

Kibra’s Peter Orero observed that while devolution was supposed to unite leaders, governors feel that the Mps should not be involved and preferring to work with MCAS and Senators who oversight them.

“They see us as the enemies because we are in the National government; the devolution ought to be revisited because we understand the ground,”

Orero lamented that there has been a poor development record in Kibera since there has been opposition for all the regimes adding that the needs of the constituency are more since it is an informal settlement.

The MP regretted that there are some wards in Kibera that don’t have public toilets and that was supposed to be addressed through devolution.

“Here in Nairobi, if the governor was collaborating with the Mps we would achieve a lot but if you look around in some constituencies they don’t have ECDEs which fall under the office of the governor.

 He observed that it was timely to revisit the constitution so as to understand what MPs would also do so as to contribute to the development of the counties.

Out of the 17 members of parliament in the city, others who have been vocal about development and services include Embakasi central’s Benjamin Gathiru and Embakasi North’s James Gakuya.

Gathiru’s for instance has been accusing the governor of failing to consult the MPs when it comes to some crucial issues among them the latest efforts to introduce private firms to manage solid waste in Nairobi.