Why Sifuna Says Sakaja Has Been Placed Under State Control

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has launched a fierce attack on the newly signed cooperation agreement between the national government and Johnson Sakaja, warning that the arrangement fundamentally undermines county autonomy and bypasses constitutional oversight by the Senate.

Speaking on Tuesday, Sifuna argued that the agreement signed last week in the presence of William Ruto was structured in a way that effectively places Nairobi County under the control of the national government, a move he described as a dangerous rollback of devolution.

According to the ODM Secretary General, the deal was concluded without any consultation with the Senate of Kenya, despite the Senate’s constitutional mandate to protect the interests of counties.

He warned that sidelining the Senate sets a troubling precedent that could be replicated across other devolved units.

You cannot restructure the governance of Nairobi through backroom agreements and expect the Senate to rubber stamp it later,” Sifuna said. “This is an assault on the very idea of county governments.”

At the heart of Sifuna’s criticism is the claim that the cooperation framework strips Governor Sakaja of real executive authority, reducing him to what he termed a regional administrator operating under national government supervision.

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He argued that such an arrangement contradicts the spirit and letter of the Constitution, which guarantees counties political, administrative and fiscal independence.

Sifuna further raised red flags over the potential reintroduction of unresolved legislative matters linked to the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS).

He warned that several NMS-related bills some of which were never approved by the Senate could quietly be revived through the cooperation agreement, exposing Nairobi to legal and financial risks.

These pending NMS bills were problematic then, and they remain problematic now,” he said. “You cannot smuggle them back through a cooperation agreement without Senate scrutiny.”

The senator also questioned the justification for the deal, noting that the national government allegedly owes Nairobi County more than Sh100 billion in pending disbursements.

According to Sifuna, honoring these obligations would eliminate the need for such an arrangement altogether.

His remarks are likely to intensify debate over the future of devolution, particularly in the capital, where relations between City Hall and the national government have historically been fraught.

As political tensions rise, observers warn that the Nairobi cooperation agreement could become a test case for how far the national government can go in reshaping county governance without triggering a constitutional showdown.