Nairobi Metropolitan Services director Maj-Gen Mohamed Badi has been allowed to deploy more military officers at City Hall to take over operations as tug of war between him and Governor Mike Sonko escalates.
The military officers includ Brig F Leuria, Maj JV Mbithi, Maj AN Nyakundi, Maj JK Njoroge from the Kenya Army, Lt JK Biomdo and Maj AL Musoma from the Kenya Air Force who are part of several officers seconded to other departments.
“The Defence Council approved secondment to the NMS and Ministry of Health of the aforementioned General/Senior/officers…” reads part of the letter signed by Dr Ibrahim Mohamed.
NMS reportedly aims to weed out corruption and instil discipline among county askaris as well as kick out cartels from City Hall.
The new City Hall boss recently launched a clean-up exercise and pledged to transform the Metropolitan area.
But the establishment of the NMS has faced criticism with human rights activist Ndung’u Wainaina calling it illegal.
“NMS is an unconstitutional agency interfering with constitutional governance system. Secondly, this militarization of civilian governance must be rejected,” Wainaina said.
So far, NMS has advertised 1,000 new vacancies for enforcement officers and constables as it seeks to streamline service delivery and replace ageing officers who are nearing retirement age.
Last week, Sonko said he will fight to get back the functions he signed over to the national government.
