Rescue the capital city from reckless officers

Photo Courtesy: Mwanzo TV

Thursday’s arrest of Nairobi’s Urban Planning Chief Officer Patrick Analo Akivaga, a wife and the seizure of tens of millions hidden in his Syokimau home read like a movie script. While his conduct has long attracted public concern, this moment must not be reduced to wrongdoing of an individual. We must also focus on the deeper systemic and relational failures that enabled him to thrive at City Hall. This version is updated to keep pace with this fast developing story.

Televised EACC raids revealing boxes and suitcases stuffed with bundles of thousand-shilling notes were dramatic. Only a full audit of his and his families bank accounts, Nairobi and Vihiga properties, assets, car boots and the eventual charge sheet will show the true scale of his wealth. Salaries and Remuneration Commission guidelines cap a County Chief Officer’s monthly salary at Sh 283,000. Even using the EACC’s figure of Sh 65.3 million (and overlooking media reports of Sh 250 million) seized from his home, it would take 19 years to accumulate that in salary.

A senior director across the Sonko–Kananu–Sakaja administrations, Analo is no stranger to controversy. A February 2026 Ombudsperson report, covered in this column, cited abuse of power, urged his criminal prosecution alongside four others including County Minister Stephen Mwangi, and flagged unlawful prior approvals, ignored objections, and weak enforcement linked to corruption. As Analo heads to court, focusing on him alone misses the wider system enabling abuse and illicit wealth. Nairobi, the country’s main construction hub, issues an estimated 4–6,000 permits annually. This generates over Sh 2 billion or 22 per cent of the Nairobi Government’s of own-source revenue. Yet the planning governance remains deliberately opaque.

Industry experts say the approvals process is greased by bribes. Files are “lost,” “delayed,” or fast-tracked for a fee without a receipt of e-TIMS. Projects stall without informal payments or offers of an apartment flat or two. Approvals are regularly granted for buildings that are non-compliant and breach safety, zoning, and planning laws such as the National Building Code, Physical and Land Use Planning Act (2019).

From the deadly floods, collapsing buildings, stinking garbage, seeping sewage to the traffic congestion and tenure insecurity, Nairobi reflects a city effectively sold off to developers (most are not Kenyan) for the profit of a few corrupt officials at City Hall. Nairobi’s permit system is not just broken. It’s in a corruption chokehold that raises business costs, constrains housing supply, and strangles a liveable city for over five million of us.

Anxious not to be implicated, a responsive Governor would immediately announce a systemic failure, skip the temptation to introduce the “rogue officer” narrative, suspend all five officials named in the Ombudsman February report pending full investigations, and hand over all permits, approvals, and inspection records from Analo’s tenure to the EACC.

The Governor and Director of Public Prosecutions late night Friday 5 June statements apportion blanket criminal responsibility to Nairobi City County Urban Planning Technical Committee (UPTC). The UPTC contains representatives of The Architects Association,   Kenya Alliance of Residents Association, the Kenya Institute of Planning, the Kenya Water and Sewage Company, the  Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and the National Land Commission. This is misdirected or diversionary. Non-state officers on the Advisory committees do not have authority and cannot abuse an office as they are not officers. Targeting representatives of residents and professionals criminalises public participation. The Directorate of Criminal Investigation and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions must focus on state officers with the chain of responsibility with the authority to make decision.

The County would impose a 30-day moratorium on all approvals, publish five years of permit data, timelines, and statuses, end in-person follow-ups, launch a digital transparency public dashboard with permit logs, timestamps, status, a 30-day delay complaint system and all monthly revenue collected. Within 180 days, approvals, inspections, and enforcement would be separated to ensure that no single officer controls the full pipeline. Enforcement officers without qualifications in structural engineering, architecture or planning would be phased out or retrained.

Nairobians would discuss, and the County Assembly would pass legally binding development control guidelines and area physical development plans. Isn’t it time for national regulators like NCA, NHA, KURA, KeNHA and NEMA to act decisively? Encroachments are rampant. Why wait a decade to mark and bring down buildings with the prohibitive red “X” when you can act now? 2027 aspirants, should those currently in office snooze, make this your focus.

This week’s bold EACC action demonstrates the power of consistent advocacy by the Metro Alliance, its members Denis Pritt Association, Parklands Residents Association, Kilimani Community Foundation, South B Residents Association, Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations, the Commission on the Administration of Justice among others. Citizen letters, media exposés and joint litigation eventually works. However, without pressure for systemic change, our capital city and 20 per cent of its revenue remains captured by reckless profiteers.

This opinion was also published in the Saturday Standard, 6 June 2026.