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Cities don't run on charisma but on competence

Office of the Governor at City Hall. [File, Standard]

There’s a photograph from 1963 that still hangs in City Hall, Nairobi, bathed in golden light, jacaranda trees lining pristine boulevards, the Kenyatta International Conference Centre rising like a promise against an endless sky. That Nairobi wasn’t just a city. It was a statement: Africa can build world-class cities. We belong at the table. 

Barack Obama saw that city in 2015. So did Joe Biden, as Vice President in 2020, and Theresa May in 2018. Hillary Clinton praised Nairobi hair stylists as comparable to those in California and New York. Nairobi has hosted kings, presidents, and Nobel laureates. The city has been the diplomatic heart of East Africa, the Silicon Savannah, the gateway to a continent on the rise. In her infamous song ‘My City’, Mayonde says there is no city like Nairobi. 

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