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The Nairobi City Council: A Study in Comparative Local Government1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Herrbert H. Werlin
Herrbert H. Werlin
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Stony Brook, Long Island
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Extract

Charles Rubia's resignation from office as Mayor of Nairobi on September 15, 1964, set off a potentially dangerous political crisis in Kenya. Although Rubia subsequently returned to office the affair split the major political party, aroused considerable tribal passion, provoked the youth-wing into angry demonstrations and the Kikuyu women of Nairobi into their piercing “ululating” cry in front of the City Hall.

Type
Urban Politics
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , January 1966 , pp. 181 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1966

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References

2 This quotation is based on one of the more than eighty interviews recorded, including the four European members of the City Council, four of the nine Asian members, twelve of the thirty African Council members, six of the eight major committee chairmen, the chief officers or the deputy directors of all the departments of the City Council, and all but two of the important officials in the Ministry for Local Government. The nature of my research did not lend itself to a standardized questionnaire but rather to questions specifically directed to the persons being interviewed. No writing was done during the course of the interviews, often lasting over an hour, the remarks being recorded immediately afterwards as completely as I could remember.

3 East African Standard, September 15, 1964.

4 Ibid., September 22, 1964.

5 Sunday Post, September 20, 1964.

6 Daily Nation, September 24, 1964.

7 Harris, George Montagu, Municipal Self-Government in Britain (London, P. S. King & Son, Ltd., 1939), p. 3Google Scholar.

8 Central and Local Government (London, Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1951), p. 351Google Scholar.

9 English Local Government (London, Methuen & Co., 1933), p. 501Google Scholar.

10 The Theory and Practice of Modern Government, Rev. ed. (New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1949), p. 595Google Scholar.

11 English Local Government, op. cit., p. 502.

12 Ibid., p. 5.

13 Ibid., pp. 289 ff.

14 (New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1960), passim.

15 (Berkeley & Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1962).

16 Ibid., p. 16.

17 Ibid., p. 34.

18 Ibid., p. 15.

19 Ibid., p. 33.

20 Ibid., p. 30.

21 Ibid.

22 The general argument approximates that of Samuel H. Beer, “The Analysis of Political Systems”, in Beer, S. H. & Ulam, A. B., eds., Patterns of Government (New York, Random House, 1958)Google Scholar, passim.

23 “Introductory Summary” in Aidan Southall, ed., Social Change in Modern Africa (London, Oxford University Press, 1961)Google Scholar, passim.

24 Parker, Mary, Political and Social Aspects of the Development of Municipal Government in Kenya with Special Reference to Nairobi (London, Colonial Office, 1948?), p. 239Google Scholar.

25 Cf. Mair, Lucy, New Nations (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1963), pp. 194–227Google Scholar.

26 Sir Lugard, F. D., The Dual Mandate in Tropical Africa, 3rd ed. (Edinburgh & London, Blackwood, 1926), pp. 79–80Google Scholar.

27 See Report of the Local Government Commission, 1927, Vol. I: Nairobi and its Environs, Mombasa and its Environs (London, The Crown Agents for the Colonies, 1927), pp. 157–8Google Scholar.

28 See the report submitted to the Native Affairs Committee of the Municipal Council of Nairobi on 30th April, 1941; and Thomas, A. T. G., “Some of the Practical Problems about African Housing”, East African Standard, 24 and 25 January, 1955Google Scholar.

29 Wraith, R. E., East African Citizen (London, Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 108Google Scholar.

30 Op. cit., p. 14.

31 Cf. O'Hagan, Desmond, “African's Part in Nairobi Local Government”, in Journal of African Administration, Vol. I, No. 4 (October, 1949), pp. 156–8Google Scholar.

32 Cf. Rawcliffe, D. H., The Struggle for Kenya (London, Victor Gollancz, 1954), pp. 15 ffGoogle Scholar.

33 See Corfield, F. D., The Origin and Growth of Mau Mau: an Historical Survey, Sessional Paper No. 5 (Nairobi, Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, 1959/60)Google Scholar.

34 These facts and figures are derived from the following sources: Development Plan, 1964–1970 (Nairobi, Government of Kenya, 1964)Google Scholar; Economic Survey, 1964 (Nairobi, The Treasury, May 1964)Google Scholar; Hunter, Guy, Education for a Developing Region: a Study in East Africa (London, Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1963)Google Scholar.

35 Forrester, Marion W., Kenya Today: Social Prerequisites for Economic Development (The Hague, The Netherlands, Mouton & Co., 1962), p . 104Google Scholar.

36 Carl G. Rosberg, Jr., “Political Conflict and Change in Kenya”, in Carter, Gwendolen M. and Brown, William O., eds., Transition in Africa: Studies in Political Adaptation (Boston, Boston University Press, 1958), p . 91Google Scholar.

37 See comment by Odede, F. W. in East African Standard, August 22, 1962Google Scholar.

38 Cf. Economic Survey, 1964 (cited in n. 34), pp. 39–40, 51–2.

39 Segal, Aaron, “Unemployment, Population and the Plan”, The Kenya Weekly News, October 9, 1964Google Scholar. Cf. sources cited in note 34.

40 See the Clerk, Town, Annual Report (Nairobi, City Hall, March 1961), p. 1Google Scholar.

41 E. P. Wilkinson, “Urbanization” (A Report to the Nairobi City Council, 1962); “Nairobi's Population Growth and the Problem of Housing” (A Report to the Nairobi City Council, 1964); S. C. Lock, “Nairobi Area: Housing of Migrants” (Memorandum prepared by the Town Planning Adviser on the instructions of the Ministers for Local Government, Health and Housing and Labour and Social Services, 1963).

42 Cf. Harris, Michael, “The Unemployment Problem”, Sunday Nation, 29 September 1963Google Scholar.

43 The sources used for this information include: Who's Who in East Africa, 1963–1964 (Nairobi, Marco Surveys Ltd., 1964); the files of the East African Standard; the files of the Public Relations Officer of the Nairobi City Council; and personal interview.

44 East African Standard, November 19, 1963.

45 Cf. Wraith, Ronald and Simpkins, Edgar, Corruption in Developing Countries (London, Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1963)Google Scholar, passim.

46 Ibid., p. 206.

47 The West African Councillors, 2nd ed. (London, Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 211–212, and pp. 12–15. See also Woodroffe, I., “The Relationship Between Central and Local Government in Africa”, Journal of African Administration, Vol. IX, No. 1 (January 1957), p. 12Google Scholar.

48 See for an example of such changes, Sharma, M. P., Local Self-Government in India, 3rd ed. (Allahabad, Kitab Mahal, 1960), p. 158Google Scholar.

49 Op. cit., p. 208.