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NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Alai keeps it real, restoring Nairobi to its ancient mission of a supply depot

Peter Kimani

By Peter Kimani | Mar 07, 2025

**A trader pulls a handcart at Marikiti in Nairobi.** [File, Standard]

Robert Alai emerged as social media was exploding (perhaps it still is), supplanting kernels of information or misinformation, depending on who you ask to cement his reputation as an “influencer”.

I don’t know whether he’s still influencing others, besides mobilising adequate votes to secure ward representation of Nairobi’s affluent neighbourhood of Kileleshwa. This week, Alai proved some vital work is progressing on, in spite of everything else that’s going on in the city, by presenting a Motion that seeks to regulate what he calls non-motorised transport.

That’s a sophisticated term for jua kali contraptions like mkokoteni, tricycles and wheelbarrows, like the one Prezzo Ruto used to ride to the State House, before adopting jets as his preferred mode of transport. I think jets qualify as non-motorised transport, but that’s outside the remit of Alai’s Motion.

Apparently, nearly half of the city dwellers use these barrows and mkokoteni to move from point A to point B, accounting for some 2.5 million trips daily. That’s a massive exodus if ever there was one! Alai is hoping to regulate this sector by introducing riders’ registration and insurance.

He is silent on who will pay for the insurance, or even training for those riders. Or if special lanes will be created alongside pedestrian and cycling lanes that are more attuned to the modest pace of mkokoteni hauliers.

Keep Reading business

I think that’s the novelty of the Motion. As the rest of Nairobi hurtles through rapid bus transport lanes, expressways, electric buses and what-have-you, Alai keeps it real. He is reminding us that Nairobi is still a swamp, providing suppliers to railway builders using donkey-pulled carts and mkokoteni.