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The United States acting Ambassador to Kenya Eric Kneedler has lauded Nairobi County Government for putting up the required measures in its disaster management programs and security.
Kneedler, who spoke after paying Nairobi acting governor Ann Kananu a courtesy call at her office said the county has been on the forefront in raising its standards globally by its commitment to address some of the key issues that affect people living in a city.
In particular, he noted that the establishment of the new Gigiri fire station and improved security surveillance around the US embassy.
“We have seen significant and milestone achievements in recent years in projects like the fire station in Gigiri and generally efforts to improve service delivery to the people,” Kneedler noted.
He added that the US will continue to be a key partner to Kenya and Nairobi in particular.
On her part, Kananu promised that Nairobi will continue working hard to remain a friendly city to investors calling upon the US business community to explore various investment opportunities within the county’s development agenda.
“We appreciate the good cooperation between Kenya and the US, and the support that the US has offered Nairobi as one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. The US and its citizens should not shy away from expressing interest in working with us,” Kananu said.
However, The Informer established the county government is yet to construct its own fire station despite having amassed at least Sh1.6 billion in fire inspection revenue since 2013 and most parcels of land earmarked for construction of fire station have since been grabbed.
With a population way above 5 million residents, Nairobi has only two functional fire stations, all built before independence; Koja Fire Station along Tom Mboya Street, built in 1907 and another one at Industrial Area built in 1957.
The other two operational ones along Kangundo Road and another in Waithaka are all funded by the World Bank.
The adjacent to the US Embassy in Gigiri was repossessed in 2018 from a private developer who had grabbed and turned it into a garage.
According to records the county government received Sh1.63 billion in fire inspection revenue between July, 2013 and February, 2019.
In October, 2017, the county was to receive 26 fire engines donated by Somati Vehicles NV, a Belgium-based company.
In 2016, City Hall had only 10 fire engines, of which 4 engines, all second-hand, were donated in August the same year by Japanese government at a tune of Sh200 million.
Last year, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced $50 million to support Kenya’s response and recovery efforts to meet the immediate and longer-term challenges that COVID-19 is posing.
The new acting envoy challenged Nairobi to explore more opportunities in digital innovation and climate change, the two parties agreed that there is need for more extensive talks to work on modalities of how the US twin cities and Nairobi can work together in order to improve living standards of Nairobians.
County Executive Committee Member for Housing and Lands Charles Kerich said that the county needs more investors like other cities in the World.
Kerich noted that despite years of cooperation, Nairobi is yet to have serious business related conversations with its twin cities in the US. He said that Nairobi is looking forward to serious investment from the US.
He said that Nairobi has ongoing ambitious projects in the housing sector and US investors should show interests.
“We want to see more interest from American companies to invest in Nairobi and that is our area of concern, so we are looking forward to serious investment from the US,” Kerich said.
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