×

Mboya, Sakaja and the 'curse' of Nairobi city

Left: Mark Watts, Executive Director of C40 Cities and Nairobi City County Governor Johnson Sakaja during the opening ceremony of the three-day three-day Green & Resilient Urban ShiftAfrica Forum at Gigiri in Nairobi on Monday.[Courtesy]

Once upon a time, Kenya had a young trade unionist and politician called Thomas Joseph Mboya.

He had boundless leadership skills. Besides being good with economics, he had the gift of the garb best seen during political rallies, union negotiations and diplomatic forays.

The man from Rusinga in Homa Bay County also had networks abroad, which he leveraged to secure American scholarships for Kenyans under the Airlift Africa programme.