What the Nitpicker missed.

In my own view, a college of voters who constitute business owners should elect Nairobi County’s administrative leader. A staggered system of votes, based on number of employees can be designed so that those with more skin in the game have more say. ~ Carol Musyoka, The Nitpicker (The City of Nairobi as a Financial Hub)

The City of London is not a financial hub because those "with more skin in the game" get to elect London's mayor. It is one because it has a very long history of financial innovation. It may have a lost a step or two in the past, but The City remains a financial hub because of the level of interconnectedness between The City, other financial centres (such as Frankfurt, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong), the manner in which the financial system evolved in Europe and the degree of investment in regulations and civic facilities by the City of London and the government of the United Kingdom.

Nairobi does not have a history of innovation in financial services; by and large, it has followed where others have led. Safaricom's MPesa is an outlier, but nairobi' banking, mortgage and inosurance sectors are mirrors of those in Johannesburg, Lagos, Cairo, New Delhi, Karachi and Istanbul - mirrors of The City, Frankfurt, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong. There is no alchemy to becoming a financial hub; Dubai has demonstrated that if you invest in the right regulations and civic facilities, offer exorbitant incentives and guarantee safety and security, the investors will come.

On the regulatory front, we are doing well. On regulatory enforcement, we are still the Wild West. A regulatory system works best when it is speedy, certain and trusted, none of which is the regulatory environment in Nairobi, indeed in Kenya. When commercial disputes take years to resolve, where the decisions of regulatory authorities and the judicial system are uncertain and mistrusted, the dream of becoming a financial hub may die on the vine before it is ever realised.

The Nitpicker is correct about the logistical nightmare that is Nairobi. reliable mass transit is a dream for now, never mind the Governor's deals with Japan or Frankfurt for trains and buses. If employers and employees cannot commute speedily and reliably, many man hours will be lost sitting in our interminable traffic jams. The communications infrastructure is also a barrier to the dream of becoming a financial hub; unreliable internet and telephone links remain the greatest challenge to speedy information exchange, the foundation for deal-making. This affects too the movement of goods between manufacturers and their customers.

Finally, the constitutional scheme that the Ghai Commission designed and was harmonised by the Commission of Experts means that the choice of the County Government will always be in the hands of all Nairobians. There is a little-talked about statute that is yet to be implemented and it is one reason why Nairobi remains slow-footed regarding its dreams of becoming a financial hub: the Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2011 (Act No. 13 of 2011). Its implementation would separate the administration of the County from the administration of the City. It would be the surest way of streamlining investment in financial services from everything else, allowing a city manager to focus exclusively on the things that the financial services sector really need to flourish. In this, perhaps, the Nitpicker would approve: those with "skin in the game" could have a say in the appointment of a city management board.