By Martin Masai
Key Stakeholders including the Civil Society Locked Out of the Nomination Process
The appointment of board members to Machakos’ three municipalities has opened a serious governance fault line, raising questions not just about who was appointed, but how power was exercised — and whose voices were deliberately kept out.
At the centre of the controversy is the process through which Governor Wavinya Ndeti obtained and forwarded names for appointment to the boards of Machakos, Athi River, and Kangundo–Tala municipalities, a process that civil society actors say bypassed the law and hollowed out public participation.
Inquiries to the designated nominating bodies found the organizations were not requested to nominate their nominees as required by law.
Under the Cities and Urban Areas Act, municipal boards are not meant to be extensions of the executive. The law is explicit that board members are to be drawn from distinct stakeholder categories — including professional bodies, neighbourhood associations, the private sector, and civil society — through a nomination process originating from those stakeholders, before names are transmitted by the Governor to the County Assembly for vetting and eventual appointment.
The Act further states that municipal boards shall reflect “diverse interests in the municipality and provide a mechanism for participation by residents in the governance of urban areas.”
Instead of stakeholder-driven nominations, the Governor is accused of directly recommending names, many of them listed as “Governor’s nominees,” or other fabricated originations, effectively collapsing the distance the law deliberately creates between executive power and urban governance.
The approved board for Machakos Municipality includes Josephine Musenya Mwau, Rev. Roseh Mumbi Kitavi, and Damaris Wayua Loki, all designated as Governor’s nominees, alongside local Imam- Sheikh Anas Ali Abdallah, Collins Kitaka Kaloki, and Daniel Mutua Muoki, who are nominally linked to neighbourhood, private sector, and professional interests. Sheikh Anas is returning to the board beyond the one term limit for board members.
In Athi River Municipality, the pattern repeats. Merceline Nmbone Mbelesia and Mohamed Sora Elema enter the board as Governor’s nominees, joined by businessman Lali Kathuli, John Thiong’o, and Juliet Wamiri, representing private, informal, and neighbourhood sectors respectively.
The Kangundo–Tala Municipality Board is similarly constituted, with Anthanas Ndolo Mutinda, Suleiman Maundu Ramadhan, and Canon Capt. Romana Kiio listed as Governor’s nominees, alongside Helen Muthoki Jonathan, Irene Nduku, Maureen Mumbua Kilonzo, and Raphael Ndavi.
What troubles civil society is not merely the composition of the boards, but the absence of any organised civil society voice, despite the law recognising such participation as central to urban governance.
The controversy has unfolded even as Governor Wavinya and the County Secretary Dr Muya Ndambuki have just returned from a high-level executive programme focused precisely on urban leadership and city management- roles they never ordinarily perform.
Days ago, Ndeti completed the AMALI Fellowship at the University of Cape Town, a structured peer-learning programme bringing together Mayors from across Africa, culminating in formal certification.
In remarks shared on her Facebook page, the Governor said the fellowship focused on urban growth, service delivery, and governance, describing it as a forum for exchanging ideas and strengthening leadership outcomes. “Effective leadership is about learning, sharing, and delivering results that matter,” she wrote, adding that the insights gained would help shape cities and communities in Machakos and beyond.
Yet even as the Governor publicly underscores the importance of specialised training, peer learning, and modern urban governance principles, none of the officials she appointed to oversee Machakos’ municipalities are known to have undergone comparable training in city management — a disconnect that critics say mirrors the broader governance concerns now surfacing.
According to Fred Lau, a long-standing urban governance advocate, the Machakos Local Urban Forum (MLUF) has been engaged in urban policy since 2011, working with the former Machakos Municipal Council, officials from the Ministry of Local Government, and national stakeholders in shaping frameworks that later informed the National Urban Development Policy.
That policy, he notes, treats urban areas as complex social and economic systems — spaces of housing, infrastructure, livelihoods, safety, environmental stewardship, and inclusion — all of which demand continuous civic engagement, not executive control.
Yet MLUF was never asked to submit a nominee.
Nor was civil society represented through the County Budget and Economic Forum, even after the Machakos County Civil Society Network formally forwarded a nominee. The omission, Lauu argues, is neither accidental nor administrative.
“When civil society is locked out of boards that decide how towns are planned, serviced and expanded, it is not just exclusion — it is a quiet restructuring of power,” he said.
Governance experts warn that such exclusion strikes at the heart of the Cities and Urban Areas Act, which sought to reverse decades of opaque municipal decision-making by embedding participation, diversity, and accountability into urban institutions.
By allowing the executive to dominate nominations, they argue, municipal boards risk becoming instruments of political convenience rather than custodians of public interest.
As the County Assembly moves forward with these appointments, pressure is mounting for a reckoning — not only over legality, but over the future of participatory governance in Machakos’ fast-growing urban centres.
Whether the boards will function as envisioned by law, or as extensions of executive authority, may ultimately define how Machakos’ towns grow — and who gets to shape that growth.
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