Make Isiolo state capital, Nairobi commercial city

The recent police blockades that had motorists and passengers, as well as ambulances ferrying patients, stuck in traffic overnight on major roads in Nairobi should jolt the authorities to think of relocating the capital city. 

The incidents exposed how badly Nairobi is congested. The roads serving the city are too constricted to contain the kind of population explosion being witnessed during rush hour.

There are thousands of people who commute daily from adjacent counties to Nairobi since the cost of housing in capital city has shot up beyond the reach of many. Demand for housing has far outstripped supply.

Countries have always moved their capitals from one city to another. Tanzania and South Africa decentralised their administrative capitals and relocated them to adjacent areas.

Between 1950 and 1990,  some 13 countries worldwide moved their capitals. The ancient Egyptians, Romans and Chinese changed their capitals frequently as there is a noticeable connection between the relocation of the capital city and state- and nation-building.

A capital city must be defined by the principles of cleanliness, efficiency and effectiveness. Nairobi is bottled up. The city is groaning under the lethargy of over-centralisation and over-concentration. Nairobi is perpetually strangled by endless traffic and congestion.

No future prospects

The national administrative capital should be relocated to another county, especially in the north, which is opening up after a decade of devolution spurred infrastructural growth. 

The seat of government should be relocated from Nairobi to ease congestion or we perhaps have two capital cities like Bolivia to ease congestion and diversify economic growth across other counties. India, Brazil and Kazakhstan shifted their capitals; South Sudan and Iran are planning to shift theirs. 

Spreading settlement away from the city is a matter of great strategic importance for Kenya. This is not something to be done instantaneously but it needs years of proper planning and consultations that might take years to actualise.

We need to start strategic planning that may actualise in 10-15 years from now that will see the opening up the untapped northern part of the country that will spur growth and economic development.

Nairobi has no future prospects for development. It has diminished imaginative thinking and institutionalised exclusion of the rest of the country. Which calls for a new administrative capital away from the congested Nairobi.

Make Isiolo the capital city. Besides being geographically central, the town has space for expansion and that would open up the north to commerce and settlement. It is the best chance to reduce the pressure on land along the Northern Transport Corridor, opening the region up to rapid investment and help to fully utilise the new Lapsset corridor.

Nairobi would then be purely a commercial city.

Mr Adankalif is a disaster and risk management consultant. [email protected]