Hawkers sell farm produce on Haile Selassie Avenue in Nairobi on July 13, 2025.
When Zohran Mamdani sat down with Jon Stewart on The Weekly Show, he said something that lingered long after the screen went dark.
“A lot of politics has been a debate about who deserves what,” he noted. “I would prefer a politics that debates how we can deliver that to everyone and to deliver it at a standard that is so good that no matter how much money is in your pocket, you opt for that.”
It sounds obvious until you consider how politics actually works. We spend endless cycles arguing over who deserves affordable housing, who merits subsidised healthcare and who should fend for themselves. Entire elections revolve around deciding who gets a piece of the pie and who gets the crumbs. Mamdani turns that logic on its head. Instead of asking who deserves public services, he asks why those services are not good enough for everyone to choose them.
That shift is profound. Public infrastructure should never be a grim last resort. It should be so reliable and efficient that even the wealthy prefer it. A public bus should be convenient enough for a car owner to leave the keys at home. A public hospital should inspire such confidence that private health insurance feels unnecessary. Public schools should be places parents compete to enrol their children in, not institutions they abandon once they can afford private tuition.
Good governance
New York City has an annual budget of more than $100 billion. That is extraordinary, but money alone has never guaranteed good governance.
What matters is political priority. Mamdani’s premise is that government should focus on making everyday life work for ordinary citizens by investing in transport, housing and public spaces. It is a simple idea modern political leadership often forgets in favour of grandstanding.
No single leader transforms a city alone. Behind every functional administration are people who understand the realities on the ground: advocates who have worked with struggling tenants, planners who know why buses run late, and community leaders who have spent years reviving neglected neighbourhoods. Leadership is not about charismatic saviours; it is about empowering capable people to solve real problems.
Listening to Mamdani, my mind drifted thousands of miles to Nairobi.
Our county government operates on a fraction of New York’s budget, but the issue is not simply money. It is the citizen’s daily experience. Nairobi residents pay taxes expecting clean streets, reliable water, decent healthcare and proper drainage. Yet many end up paying twice for the same services because the public system fails them.
If you want clean water, you hire a bowser or sink a borehole. If you want security, you hire guards and erect razor wire. If you want your rubbish collected, you pay a private contractor. If you can afford it, you avoid public clinics altogether. Citizens fund the state, then spend again to buy basic services from the private market.
High-quality public services
Those with means can shield themselves from these failures. They retreat into gated communities, install backup generators and rely on private services. Millions of Nairobi residents have no such option. They endure flooded roads, overflowing sewage and failing municipal services because there is no alternative. For them, state failure is not an inconvenience; it threatens their health, livelihoods and their children’s future.
That is why Mamdani’s point resonates far beyond New York. It reframes the purpose of government. Public policy should not provide a threadbare safety net for the poor while the wealthy buy better alternatives. It should create high-quality public services that everyone trusts and uses.
Imagine a Nairobi where public hospitals provide such excellent care that private facilities become an afterthought; where buses keep time, streets remain clean after heavy rain, parks are safe and neighbourhood schools are known for excellence. These are not utopian ideals. They are the basic standard of a government that respects its people.
Too often we judge leaders by speeches and ribbon-cutting ceremonies instead of asking whether daily life has improved. The real test of governance is simple: Can an ordinary citizen step outside each morning and feel the city is working for them?
In the end, Mamdani was not merely talking about policy. He was talking about dignity. Government succeeds when public services are so good that using them is a matter of preference, not necessity.
The writer is a journalist and human rights defender. [email protected]
