Once upon a time in the Republic of Uncommon Sense, we developed a very convenient relationship with disorder.

If a trader occupied a pavement long enough, the pavement eventually became his ancestral property.

If rubbish remained in a gutter for three rainy seasons, it qualified for permanent residency.

If somebody planted a container in the middle of a public space and nobody challenged him for five years, asking him to move suddenly became an attack on his human rights.

That is how cities gradually surrender.

Which is why something happening in Kumasi deserves attention.

Since Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi, popularly called King Zuba, became Mayor of Kumasi in April 2025, one word has increasingly defined the administration of the metropolis:

Order.

Not perfection.

Not miracles.

Not the usual political announcement followed by a brass band, three banners and eventual disappearance.

Order.

KMA has repeatedly moved into parts of the Central Business District, Asafo, Alabar and the Baba Yara Stadium enclave to remove unauthorised structures and reclaim roads, walkways and other public spaces.

Naturally, these exercises are uncomfortable.

Nobody enjoys waking up to discover that the kiosk he has operated from since President Kufuor's first term is suddenly standing where pedestrians are supposed to walk.

But cities cannot be administered entirely according to how long illegality has survived.

Kumasi's sanitation problem has received similar attention.

The Assembly has undertaken clean-up exercises, desilted drains and intensified enforcement against indiscriminate dumping. In 2026, the Mayor announced the revival of community sanitation guards, the famous Nsamansaman, and disclosed that sanitation offenders had already been hauled before the courts.

This matters because we have spent years performing the strange Ghanaian ritual of cleaning drains while simultaneously using them as refuse containers.

We remove the plastic today.

Tomorrow somebody returns with a takeaway pack, two sachet-water rubbers and the remains of yesterday's banku.

Then when the rains arrive and the city floods, we demand an investigation into what government did with the rainwater.

The Mayor has also inspected flood-prone areas, including Asafo Market and the WAEC drainage corridor, directing attention to choked waterways and desilting.

And then there is street lighting.

By January 2026, KMA had installed 240 solar-powered streetlights while repairing defective conventional lights.

That may not sound revolutionary until you remember that darkness is free accommodation for crime.

A functioning streetlight is therefore not merely a bulb hanging on a pole. It is security, commerce and confidence bundled into one piece of infrastructure.

Security interventions have gone further, with KMA working with security agencies on enhanced patrols and supporting efforts to improve police infrastructure.

Public school lands have also come under scrutiny.

After inspections revealed trading, mechanic activities, makeshift accommodation and other unauthorised uses on school property, the Mayor ordered encroachers to vacate.

Again, we arrive at that uncomfortable word:

Order.

School land is for schools.

Pavements are for pedestrians.

Drains are for water.

This should not require a PhD in Urban Planning.

Around Baba Yara Stadium, KMA has introduced standardised prefabricated commercial structures, with broader regulation of container designs planned. The Assembly is also moving against unapproved and dilapidated billboards.

There is something significant here.

The Mayor appears interested not only in whether Kumasi functions, but in how Kumasi looks.

For years, parts of the city have developed through a system best described as architectural democracy:

Everybody votes with plywood.

One person builds a kiosk.

Another places a container beside it.

A third adds an umbrella.

Before long, an entire commercial ecosystem has appeared where a pavement used to be.

There are also bigger projects.

The stalled Kejetia Phase II remains unfinished, although contractors are expected back on site. Road interventions such as the Santasi-Ahodwo-Asokwa corridor involve central government, agencies and development partners, so credit must be shared carefully.

No serious commentary should transform every grader entering Kumasi into a personal achievement of the Mayor.

But leadership is not always about owning every project.

Sometimes it is about making sure the machinery moves.

King Zuba has not got everything right.

His early rhetoric about physically dealing with offending traders generated legitimate criticism, and he subsequently clarified that enforcement would follow lawful processes.

That correction matters too.

Strong leadership should not mean lawless leadership.

Kumasi still has filthy corners.

Traffic remains painful.

Some traders will return the moment enforcement officers disappear.

Waste disposal remains a serious structural challenge.

And no Mayor, however energetic, can stand beside every gutter holding a cane and waiting for somebody carrying an empty pure water sachet.

Citizens must participate.

But there is something worth recognising in the renewed insistence that Kumasi should not accept disorder simply because disorder has lived here long enough to know everybody's house.

A city does not become beautiful by accident.

Someone must insist that rules matter.

Someone must ask uncomfortable questions.

Someone must occasionally tell us that the pavement belongs to everybody.

And perhaps, after years of learning to coexist peacefully with chaos, Kumasi is slowly rediscovering one very unfashionable principle:

A city works better when somebody appears to be in charge.

#RepublicOfUncommonSense