LIVE NOW: President Ruto Address Nairobi MCAs At City Hall

Thank you very much honorable members. I suggest that you take your seats. Thank you. Your Excellency, my brother the governor of the great city of Nairobi, the Honorable Johnson Sakaja. My good speaker, the Honorable Speaker of the County Assembly of Nairobi Kennedy Githi. Honorable members of the county assembly, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. 13 years after the path of devolution under the Constitution of Kenya, I stand before you today as the first president and head of state to address the county assembly of our capital city. I do so with clarity, with conviction, and with a profound sense of duty. Because Nairobi is not only another county, it is not just another county. Nairobi is the capital of the Republic of Kenya. It is the seat of our sovereignty, the face of our nation, the engine of our economy, and the standard by which much of the world judges our nation. Early this morning, I was in a meeting at the KICC where 40 ministers from Africa are assembled. Many of them will go back home and they will report that they came to Kenya, but the reality is that they came to Nairobi. That is the essence of the importance of Nairobi. When Nairobi works, Kenya works. When Nairobi fails, Kenya pays the price. That is why we must speak cleanly and with candor to each other today. For too long, Nairobi has been a city of immense promise, trapped by chronic dysfunction. A city of extraordinary potential, suffocated by disorder, delayed by indecision, undermined by poor planning, and held hostage by interests that profit from chaos. This city that should be the pride of Africa has too often been forced to settle for standards that are frankly unacceptable. And let us be honest, this did not happen overnight. It happened because for many years, too many leaders chose comfort over courage. Too many people in positions of responsibility looked away when hard decisions were required. Too many tolerated mediocrity. Too many postponed action. Too many chose political convenience over public good. And the result is what we see around us. A capital city where flooding still kills our people. A capital city where garbage too often defines our neighborhoods. A capital city where roads are congested, drainage is broken, sewage is overstretched, planning is weak, and basic order is too often absent. A capital city where too many residents still live without dignity in the very city whose labor, talent, and expertise sustain our national economy. This, honorable members, cannot continue. Why? Because Nairobi is too important to Kenya to be governed casually. It is too central to our national prosperity to be left to drift. It is too consequential to our international standing to be allowed to decay under the weight of indecision and excuses. Today, honorable members, Nairobi contributes 27.5% of Kenya's economy, generating over 4.1 trillion Kenya shillings annually. It hosts the only United Nations headquarters in the global south. It is home to diplomatic missions, multinational firms, regional institutions, innovators, and entrepreneurs, workers, traders and millions of Kenyans who come here every day in pursuit of opportunity. Nairobi is not merely a city. It is a national asset. And if we are serious about Kenya's future, then we must be serious about Nairobi. That is why the cooperation agreement signed between the national government and the Nairobi City County Government on the 17th of February 2026 is not a ceremonial document. It is not public relations. It is not politics for headlines. Honorable members, your role in the governance and proper functioning of Nairobi City County cannot be overstated. You have a duty to ensure that the needs and concerns of your constituents are properly addressed. I want to thank you honorable members for your efforts in reviewing and approving this agreement. It demonstrates your commitment to addressing the challenges that our great city faces. It is a deliberate act of national correction. It is an acknowledgement that the problems of Nairobi have grown too large, too urgent and too consequential to be handled through fragmentation, turf wars, bureaucratic hesitation or business as usual governance. We have therefore made a clear decision. The era of drift must end and the era of coordinated execution must begin. And honorable members, we can only succeed together. Because what Nairobi needs now is not another round of speeches. It is not another cycle of blame. It is not another season of complaints. Nairobi needs disciplined leadership. Nairobi needs order. Nairobi needs execution. Nairobi needs results. And that is exactly what we intend to deliver together. I have listened carefully to what Kenyans say about our city. I have heard their frustration. I have heard their disappointment. I have heard their anger sometimes and I have heard what residents say, what businesses say, what visitors say, what investors say and what Kenyans in the diaspora say when they compare Nairobi with other cities across Africa and beyond. And the truth is this, many of them are right. They are right to ask why our capital still struggles with basic urban order. They are right to ask why growth has not been matched by planning. They are right to ask why this city with all its importance has so long looked and functioned below its status. They are right. They are right to demand better. From fewer than 300,000 people in 1960, Nairobi has grown into a city of close to 5 million residents, swelling even further during the day. But this growth has not been matched by the infrastructure, the systems, planning discipline and service delivery that a modern metropolis requires. Your governor here keeps reminding me of discussions he's had with other mayors and county governors on the kind of resources they deploy for residents to get what is rightfully required of a modern city. More than 60% of residents live in this city of ours in informal settlements. The honorable members seated here will bear me witness. Every member here, majority of every member here has a slum in their ward. Some of the wards are slums 100%. Access to piped water remains inadequate and unreliable. Sanitation and sewage systems remain under severe strain. Mobility is constrained by congestion and insufficient transport infrastructure. Environmental degradation and encroachment have made flooding more destructive. Spatial inequality, unemployment, and exclusion continue to fuel insecurity and vulnerability in parts of our city. I remember when I visited Madare Mabatini to be specific where this member represents, I didn't sleep that night I must admit seeing what I saw in Mabatini and it is the reason why today we are building a modern school in Mabatini. These are not isolated problems. These are symptoms of a city that has for too long been managed reactively instead of strategically. And we must also say this without fear. There are people who benefit from this dysfunction. Members, there are cartels who profit from disorder. There are interests that thrive in illegal connections, illegal dumping, illegal occupation, illegal construction and broken systems. I have said it before. I said it the other day that we must as a leadership confront cartels and brokers and those who wish to benefit unjustly from the people of Kenya. You remember honorable members an occasion where I said it was about the sugar cartels. Today you can ask the people in western Kenya. Sugarcane that used to be paid in six to one year, they are now paid every week. Workers working in sugar companies that used to be paid by government, they are now paid by factories every month. And we are well on course to being not just a sugar sufficient country, we will be a sugar exporting country in the next two to three years. That is what confronting cartels gives us. We have confronted the fertilizer cartels including those who sold stones to us as fertilizer. They are no longer in office. We have confronted the coffee cartels that made it impossible for farmers to earn any decent return for their coffee. Just imagine one person was a farmer, had a license as a miller, had a license as a broker and was also participating in buying coffee at the coffee exchange. One person. Today when we broke the cartels, the price of coffee has moved from 50 shillings per kilo to 120, 130, 150 shillings per kilo. I recently took head on the fuel cartels. Members, we must take the cartels in the city of Nairobi head on. Whoever they are, however powerful they may be, it is your responsibility, that of the county government and you have the national government support to deal with it. We all know there are those who make money from weak enforcement, poor coordination and institutional paralysis. There are those who shout the loudest against reform precisely because they benefit most from failure. We know them. You know them. And let me be very clear today. Under this administration, the era of appeasing cartels at the expense of the public interest must come to an end. Because leadership is not about protecting comfortable arrangements for a few people. Leadership is about delivering justice, dignity, order and opportunity for the majority. That is what leadership is. And that means some hard decisions will have to be made. If roads must be expanded, they will be expanded. If enforcement must be, encroachments must be removed, they will be removed. If drainage channels must be cleared, they will be cleared. If illegal structures must come down, they will come down. And if systems must be reorganized to restore order, they will be reorganized. We honorable members must stop doing anything otherwise. We cannot demand world-class infrastructure while defending lawlessness. We cannot cry about floods and then resist drainage works. We cannot complain about congestion and then oppose road expansion. We cannot demand cleanliness while protecting illegal dumping. We cannot ask for order while resisting every intervention required to create it. Progress, friends, has a cost. Reform has a cost. Order has a cost. But you know what? Disorder also has a cost. Keeping to the status quo has a cost. But the good news is the cost of reform, the cost of order, the cost of change is always lower than that of indecision or status quo. So let's make our choice. And for us who are seated in this auditorium, I'm speaking to you as president and as a friend. If we are not prepared to bear the temporary inconvenience of fixing this city, then we must stop pretending that we are serious about changing it. Yes. For your information, State House has received notice from the multi-agency team reclaiming riparian land that part of the State House boundary. The wall along Kirichu Kubwa River falls within the riparian reserve and it must come down. Yes, it must come down. They have told me at least 15 meters from the high mark and I promise you that wall, that wall will come down. Honorable members, the great cities of the world did not become great by accident. They became great because leaders like the ones seated in this assembly chose discipline over disorder, long-term planning over short-term politics, and public interest over private convenience. A serious city guarantees mobility. It guarantees water, sanitation, safety. A serious city plans where people live, how they move, how they trade, and how infrastructure supports growth. A serious city protects green spaces, manages waste properly, and creates a dignified urban environment in which enterprise and opportunity can thrive. That is the standard we must now impose upon ourselves and it is why this cooperation agreement matters. It is not about transferring functions. I want to tell you this. This is not another NMS. It is not about weakening devolution. It is not about confusion of mandates. It is about ending fragmentation and restoring coordinated delivery in the one city where failure carries national consequence. Yes, the failure of this city is not just about Nairobi. It carries a national consequence. It matters to Kenya. This framework is fully anchored in the constitution and the law. Article 62 as was read to us by the speaker is clear that two levels of government are distinct yet interdependent and must conduct their relations through consultation and cooperation. Article 189 requires both levels of government to work together and provide for structured collaboration. The Urban Areas and Cities Act recognizes the special status of the capital city. The Intergovernmental Relations Act provides for joint committees and intergovernmental coordination between the city of Nairobi and the national government. And under this cooperation agreement formalized on the 27th of February 2026 this year during the inaugural joint steering committee, we now have a structured implementation platform backed by an initial Kenya shillings 80 billion to drive feasible and measurable transformation in the city of Nairobi. Honorable members, we are delivering a safer city through the installation of 50,000 street lighting points, new ones. We are agreeing with the city government of Nairobi and I believe that the honorable members in this assembly will participate in making sure that the right areas are served. We will be including another 40,000 existing lights which today don't work and the installation of another 10,000 new solar and smart street lighting. So eventually we will be looking at 100,000 lighting points in the city of Nairobi. Fabrication is already underway.

Installation begins this month, April. By end of May, Nairobi will begin to see noticeable improvements across key corridors and neighborhoods. And within 6 months, this city will be markedly brighter, safer, and more secure. I am saying this to the representatives of the people of Nairobi so that you can hold us to account. We are also extending safe electricity through last mile connectivity in informal settlements, beginning this month with Hospital Ward and moving into Kibra, Korogocho, Mathare, and Kamukunji within the next 90 days.

Today, while I was going to my office, when I opened my phone, I saw a message from the member of the county assembly of Hospital Ward, my good friend Mark there. And in that message, he was confirming that he has seen the steps being made towards actualizing. Mark is here.

We are expanding water supply through strategic interventions. And before I mention that, I have been to many parts of the city with some of you guys, and we know how a neighborhood whose lights have been switched off looks. We know how it looks in the heart of the city. To have a neighborhood that has no light is an indictment on us as leaders. That is what we seek to correct. On matter water, I have said, including Ndoto Kigiri waterworks, we are changing so that we can add 50,000 cubic meters of daily water supply. The Gigiri-Shiyoyo evacuation corridor is also being advanced to stabilize supply in high demand zones including areas supporting affordable housing development. We are deploying a budget from the Ministry of Water, working together with the county government to make sure that we realize this. On sanitation, we are undertaking what should have been done many years ago. We are building two parallel 27 kilometer trunk sewers along the Nairobi River corridor. We're developing a 60,000 cubic meter per day treatment plant and expanding last mile sewer connectivity and also supporting the long-term expansion of sewage systems for this city. You all know I have visited those areas with you, Oscar. You remember we were in your corner, Ringo, there. You know, we were in your corner, I was there with you. In fact, it was in your ward that we entered the sewer line. You know, a sewer line big enough for that tall man to go in standing. That is what we should have done many years ago. We're now doing it because it is never too late to do the right thing. On roads and drainage, we are implementing a 247 kilometer urban roads program for the city of Nairobi. Many people would ask me, where is 247 kilometers in the city of Nairobi? Yes, there is. The first phase of 63 kilometers is already ongoing and expected to be completed in the next two months. When I came here, I saw my friend Kados. Yes. And Kados confirmed to me that what I am saying here is going on in his ward. In fact, he was telling me that road is being built day and night. Correct, Kados? Yes. So, I'm not talking stories. Friends, we are matching what we are saying with what we are doing. Another 58 kilometers commenced this month and subsequent phases are being funded to begin without any delay. This will be complemented by drainage interventions in identified flood hotspots so that we can stop managing floods as annual surprises and start treating them as infrastructure failures that must be fixed. I have agreed with Governor Sakaja that I will be visiting those roads as they are ongoing in the city of Nairobi because we have many naysayers. So we want to actualize what he says, seeing is believing. Solid waste management, one of the clearest symbols of Nairobi's disorder, is also being fundamentally overhauled. The Nairobi City County Government will provide, actually has already provided, 100 acres of land for a material recovery facility and multiple transfer stations across the city. Work is already underway at Dandora, where 40 trucks are on site clearing legacy waste and additional capacity is being mobilized. My good friend from Dandora, I saw him, a member of parliament for the member for the county assembly. That good man. I saw him somewhere. Yeah. Can bear us witness. And within 3 months, we expect the core system of this facility to be operational. Within 6 months, Nairobi should begin to experience the kind of functioning waste management system that any serious capital city should already have. Are you keeping the timelines? Yes. And let me say this clearly, the national government is not standing at the sidelines on this waste management story. We are backing this effort in real and practical ways, including I have committed to support the waste management in the city of Nairobi with 2 billion Kenya shillings from the national government annually because we must clean this city. As I campaigned in the city of Nairobi, I made a commitment that we are going to clean this city because it is not just a city issue. It is a public health issue, an environmental issue, a dignity issue, and a national image issue. We are also modernizing markets because Nairobi's economy is built not only in boardrooms and office towers but more in markets, workshops, stalls, transport corridors, and trading ecosystems where ordinary Kenyans struggle and strive every day. I know many members here know what we are doing in that space and I must say the citizens and residents of this great city of Nairobi are beginning to be part of that change. I was very touched when I saw the leadership of Gikomba market step forward and say we want our market to be built, stop the politics. We want our market to be built. You know, the leadership of Gikomba market came to see me. They came and I had a long chat with them. They told me, Mr. President, when it rains in Nairobi, we cannot go and do our business. We have to wear gumboots. Our customers cannot get to our stalls. Our stalls, rain comes through. We cannot do business this way. I am putting public resources to change Gikomba and I am committed. The people I am struggling with are land grabbers. People who have taken public land and made their own. And let me tell you good people, we have to confront this head on. We are going to transform Gikomba in the next 6 months. You will see another Gikomba, and that is just phase one. Then I have another, phase one will cost us about 800 million. Then we will put in another 3.8 billion. And then I'm going to put in another 5 billion shillings because Gikomba is a national market. People come from Meru, people come from Murang'a, people come from Busia, people come from Homa Bay, people come from every part of Kenya to Gikomba to get their wares. Surely, you know when a leader goes and mobilizes people in Gikomba and tells them no, and I'm sorry I'm not talking about anybody here, I'm just, and goes and tells people in Gikomba, don't move, continue to do your business in filth, in the mud, and that leader, they buy nothing from Gikomba, they never go to Gikomba to shop anything. When they finish talking in Gikomba, they will go to City Center and do their shopping, they will go to the mall in Karen, the Hub, and do their trading honestly. Are we being fair? Surely, you know, we want members of this assembly to be able to confidently walk to Gikomba and be part of the customers of the traders in Gikomba because their trading spaces are decent. And because a functioning city must also be a safe city, we will strengthen urban security through establishment of a Nairobi Metropolitan Police framework to support coordinated, responsive, and effective security management across the capital. You agree, honorable members, that there are some parts of the city that become very difficult to go because of insecurity. And in further improving security in Nairobi, I have directed the Ministry of Interior to commence implementation within the next 60 days of enhancements to the integrated command and control communication center in Nairobi. This will improve CCTV camera coverage across the city and accelerate digitization within our security services including digital occurrence books, advanced data analytics, and artificial intelligence systems all aimed at improving responsiveness, efficiency, and turnaround time in our police stations. Honorable members, what we are doing through this agreement is significant, but it is not also the full picture because even beyond this cooperation framework, the national government is making one of the largest and consequential public investment commitments ever directed at Nairobi. By the end of this month, the Nairobi metropolitan region had 93 ongoing and planned affordable housing programs and projects spanning houses, markets, and institutional accommodation. These projects will deliver 180,000 housing units and market stalls with more than 112,000 already under implementation and nearly another 70 more in the pipeline. In investment terms, that is over 220 billion in ongoing projects and another 139 billion in planned developments, bringing the total housing related pipeline in Nairobi alone to well over 360 billion Kenya shillings in the city of Nairobi. I have been with you guys to many parts, the houses, the markets, we've been there together. True or not true? Yes. So that is the kind of investment we are making in this city and it is because we believe in devolution. We believe that the city of Nairobi occupies a special place as the capital of Kenya and the face of our nation. And this housing is not just a housing program. It is urban reconstruction because affordable housing is not only about walls and roofs. It is about planning, it is about infrastructure, it is about services, it is about jobs, it is about careers. It is about restoring dignity to working people and ending the absurdity of a city where those who sustain the economy cannot afford to live decently within it. The Raila Odinga International Talanta Sports Center is nearing completion. As we prepare for the 2027 AFCON tournament, the Bomas International Convention Complex is being developed to strengthen Nairobi's position as a premier MICE destination. Plans are underway to expand Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and reinforce Nairobi's role as the aviation gateway to our region. Tomorrow, God willing, I will be signing another agreement to establish what I told you, Sagana. The Nairobi Arena here at the Railway City. Critical roads infrastructure projects are ongoing to ease congestion and improve mobility across our city. And our investment is not only in concrete and steel, it is in people. In education, we are expanding classroom infrastructure to meet growing enrollment and improve learning environments for our children where we allocated an additional 1 billion shillings in the last financial year for development of classrooms. Last week I've gone to hand over the classrooms in Kawangware, in Dagoretti South, in Westlands, God willing. I wanted to do for Kibra and all the other places, Langata, this week and then move on to Makadara and all the other places because for far too long our residents of the city of Nairobi did not have enough learning spaces for our children. In health, Nairobi's system is undergoing a serious transformation. Today, 2.6 million residents are registered under SHA and a record 23 billion is flowing into health facilities. But our ambition is not simply to expand access. Our ambition is to build a health system worthy of a capital city, one anchored by the transformation of Kenyatta National Hospital and the development of a modern referral facility built for the future. We're also investing in Nairobi's youth through programs such as Ajira and other targeted interventions to expand access to jobs, skills, and enterprise opportunities. And as Nairobi rises, so too must its identity as the creative and cultural hub of this region. That is why we are advancing the Creative Economy Bill 2026 and putting in place an incentive framework to make Nairobi the sub-Saharan capital of film and content creation, a city where talent is monetized, creativity is industrialized, and young people can build livelihoods from the power of their ideas. Taken together, these investments are not random projects. They are part of a deliberate national strategy to renew, modernize, and reposition Nairobi as a functional, competitive, orderly, and globally respected capital. Honorable members, ultimately this is not just about money. It is not just about plans. It is not just about programs. It is about leadership. Let me repeat. It's about leadership. That's what it is. That's what it boils down to. It's about whether we in this generation will finally do what others before us feared to do. Will we, members, will we confront resistance when it comes? Will we stand firm when vested interests complain? Will we push through when cartels fight back? Because they will. Will we make the decisions that are right even when they are not immediately popular? Or will we retreat into the same old cycle of hesitation, excuses, blame, and underperformance? These are the real questions before us because leadership is not tested when decisions are easy. Leadership is proven when the right thing is difficult. Leadership demands courage, discipline, sacrifice, and the willingness to endure criticism in the short term so that future generations may inherit something better in the long term. And history will not remember us for the excuses we made. History will only remember us for what we changed. History will not hold us to account when we fail to do the wrong thing. The responsibility, honorable members, is yours and mine today. As I said earlier, it's never too late for us to do the right thing. So, let us not be the generation that inherited a great capital and left it broken. Let us be the generation that finally imposed order where there was disorder. That restored dignity where there was neglect. That defeated cartels where there was capture. That chose reform over fear. That chose posterity over popularity. That chose courage over convenience. That chose to build, not merely to talk. Let us be the generation that finally made Nairobi work. Let us do it now, firmly, unapologetically, and without turning back together. Honorable members, I thank you for your kind attention. Thank you very much and God bless you.