Jeff Koinange Live took the bench on the road this week, setting up on the beach in Mombasa, County 001, with a live audience and one guest in the hot seat: Governor Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir, now in his first term and weighing a second.
Jeff did not waste time. "Mombasa stinks," he told the governor, pointing to the rubbish piling up in the city's streets. Nassir did something few politicians do on live television: he took responsibility. The county, he explained, had signed an ambitious waste contract to build transfer stations, bring in compactors, hire thousands of young people for door-to-door collection and turn the dumpsite into a recycling operation. Court cases slowed it down, investors grew cautious, and the city fell back on old methods. "If you're looking for plan A," he said, "don't just look at plan A." He said the first batch of new equipment had just arrived.
On flooding in areas like Tudor, he blamed years of unchecked building connected to storm-water drains, and said a World Bank-backed sewerage plant at Kipevu was more than 80% complete. "Rome was not built in a day," he said.
Asked whether he could beat rivals such as Hassan Omar in 2027, he refused to discuss opponents by name, saying he would only debate issues. On ODM losing members at the Coast, he quoted the late party leader: you would "rather be few but have a loyal few."
The audience then took over. A young businesswoman asked what happens to the extra health workers when the county's free Baba Care programme ends in November. A nurses' union official said residents were "extremely happy" with Baba Care, but raised burnout and staff welfare. Nassir said the programme had been extended through November, that more health workers would still be needed, and that he had asked the county to draft, within a week, a policy rewarding medics based on the number of patients they see.
It was a frank, sometimes uncomfortable hour for a governor who, as Jeff put it, is one of the few willing to admit when something has gone wrong.
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