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Nairobi City County Governor Johnson Sakaja when he appeared before the Senate’s County Public Investments Committee at Bunge Tower in Nairobi on July 21, 2025.
Threats of impeachment from a hostile county assembly weakened Governor Johnson Sakaja's political clout, leaving him exposed when State House floated the agreement for the national government's intervention to run the capital.
Talks for State House to have a bigger role in the running of county affairs started in November last year, soon after President William Ruto and then Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga had, in September, rescued Mr Sakaja from a plot by Nairobi MCAs to oust him.
Vulnerable and at the mercy of the broad-based government, the highlight of the negotiations was the signing of a cooperation deal at State House on Tuesday, a development that has stirred fresh trouble for the first-term county boss.
But the governor’s tribulations appear to be far from over, with MCAs reviving the bid to impeach him, arguing the agreement with the national government is an admission that he is unable to govern.
Nairobi County Assembly Deputy Minority Leader Waithera Chege said it is just a matter of when, and not if, a fresh impeachment motion is tabled before the Nairobi County Assembly.
The South B MCA said the national government coming in to take over key functions of the county government is a sure sign that the governor has failed in his mandate to run the capital city.
“We are telling the governor to either resign or be impeached. He needs to choose one. I have personally put my signature on the new impeachment motion. It is because of his incompetence that we are in this situation,” Ms Chege claimed.
“The reason why the national government has come on board is because of his failure to understand what he is supposed to do and why he was elected by Nairobi people. If he was working, the national government would not be coming in to help,” she said.
The ward representative argued that the governor has lost the support of the assembly, with a majority of her colleagues losing confidence in his leadership.
“How come everyone is against you? Every other MCA apart from less than five out of the 85 wards are complaining. I don’t know what happened to the governor. I don’t think he is in charge.”
According to multiple sources who spoke to Nation, Governor Sakaja has been living on borrowed time ever since last year September when he fell out with a majority of the MCAs.
At the height of the sharp differences with the ward representatives, the county boss bought more time following the intervention by President Ruto and Mr Odinga. Mr Odinga died in October last year.
However, something had to be given as part of the intervention after the MCAs complained the governor had failed in running the county government.
Deal with National Government
On Tuesday, Mr Sakaja signed a cooperation agreement with the national government focusing on four key work streams, including water and sewerage, roads, bridges and drainage, housing and related infrastructure development, including lighting, as well as solid waste management and Nairobi rivers regeneration.
The agreement unlocked Sh80 billion, which will go towards making the capital city more livable, secure, and efficient for the more than 4.4 million residents.
Nairobi County Governor Johnson Sakaja (centre left) and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi (centre right) during the signing of a cooperation agreement between the National Government and the Nairobi City County Government at State House, Nairobi.
President Ruto said the cooperation is aimed at raising the performance, efficiency, and global standing of Nairobi, explaining that Nairobi is not merely another devolved unit but Kenya’s capital – the seat of the Republic, and the nerve centre of national administration.
“A capital city must work. It must function. It must meet the highest standards of order, infrastructure, efficiency, and service delivery not only for its five million residents, but also for the millions who depend on it every day.”
Governor Sakaja maintained that Nairobi needs special attention, resources and support as a capital city and the agreement gives it an opportunity to leverage and benefit from its unique position as the capital of Kenya.
“With a population of close to 7 million residents and with the city growing year on year, the equitable share from the Division of Revenue that provides resources to all the counties as well as our own source revenue can never be enough for the demanding needs of a capital city.”
Nonetheless, MCAs now see the cooperation as an admission of a lack of capacity to lead the capital city, hence the growing calls to have him resign or be impeached.
Kileleshwa Ward MCA Robert Alai said the signature collection began last week, and as of Tuesday, more than 55 MCAs had appended their signature on the motion.
“We feel the governor is too incompetent and even if you give him 1000 years, he will not change the city. He does not have the capacity to run the capital city,” said Mr Alai.
Nation has learnt that there was a meeting by the Liaison committee – made up of chairpersons of committees – of the assembly in Mombasa last week, where the chairs were read to the riot act.
“The governor is still accessible as he is always at Riverside. He only works with a clique of MCAs including the Budget committee chairperson and the Majority Leader,” said an MCA who sought anonymity.
Baba Dogo MCA Geoffrey Majiwa said the signature collection is ongoing, and it has been precipitated by the governor failing to implement what was agreed upon when they shelved the earlier impeachment plan.
“We are going on with the signature collection because the governor has not implemented what we agreed upon last year when we shelved the impeachment bid.”
But the governor told Nation that he has no regrets signing the cooperation agreement, describing it as the best thing to have happened to Nairobi.
Nairobi County Governor Johnson Sakaja at State House on February 17, 2026.
He said such a framework was long overdue and is something that is provided for in the law, that is, Section 6 of the Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2012.
“I have no regrets at all. It was in the interest of the people. Through the agreement, Nairobi will have additional funding to the tune of Sh80 billion. Where would I have gotten this amount from? Do I pontificate or get my people what they want? I had to rely on the national government which can borrow,” said Mr Sakaja.
On the fresh impeachment bid, the former Nairobi senator said he is not aware of such plans and therefore cannot comment on what he has not seen.
“How do I respond to what I have not seen? I am not aware of any such plans,” Mr Sakaja said.
Elected on President Ruto’s ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket, Governor Sakaja has had to strike a political truce with ODM – the majority side in the assembly – for a political lifeline.
When the last ouster bid collapsed, some MCAs warned the governor that it was too early to celebrate the impeachment survival following the intervention of the political bigwigs.
According to the members, the grounds for the impeachment motion were too significant to be dismissed simply because the party leaders intervened, saying the impeachment bid had merely been put on hold and not withdrawn entirely.
Since Governor Sakaja was saved last year, there have been major political developments in the country with the passing on of Mr Odinga and infighting rocking his party with two factions emerging.
One of the factions is led by Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, ODM secretary-general, while the other is led by Siaya Senator Oburu Oginga.
Last year, 87 out of 123 MCAs had appended their signatures in support of Mr Sakaja’s ouster motion after initial attempts to have the ward representatives go slow on the plan hit a political brick wall.
According to the Nairobi County Assembly Standing Orders, signatures from one third of the MCAs are needed for an impeachment motion to be tabled.
This means that at least 41 out of 123 MCAs must append their signatures on the motion for it to be approved for tabling.
As part of shelving the impeachment, the governor was given 60 days to address the underlying concerns that led to the censure motion, failure to which the matter would be revisited.
Governor Sakaja was given two months to address the issues of delay in bursary disbursement, cases of corruption, and stalled projects in wards, failure to release ward development funds as well as address the issue of street lighting.
The MCAs had also blamed the City Hall boss for dilapidated roads in the wards, uncollected garbage in the city, illegal eviction of people from the houses, payment of contractors, and misappropriation of public funds.
This is in addition to presiding over the collapse of nearly all sectors in the county government, with his priority being the school feeding programme, which is also under scrutiny at the moment.
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