[Source: Business Daily, by Collins Omulo]
More than 70 percent of residential buildings in Nairobi are not compliant with the county government’s zoning policy on the number of floors.
Nairobi County Assembly Planning, Housing and Lands committee chairman Anthony Karanja said only 25 percent of all city buildings adhere to the policy.
“It has come to our notice that the planning department and unscrupulous developers have been approving and developing structures outside the county’s zoning policy and if left unchecked we will have a disorganised county,” said Mr Karanja.
He said the committee will from next week start inspection of buildings to re-evaluate their approvals and recommend, among other things, demolition and regularisation of the buildings.
“We are giving the notice to the executive to put their house in order because as a committee, we will be going round from next week to re-evaluate the approvals of the buildings. It is becoming a menace,” he said.
This emerged during the Committee’s session on Tuesday where officers from the Urban Planning were questioned over the influx of unapproved buildings in the capital city.
Zoning is a planning control for the built environment that includes dividing land into sections, permitting land use on specific sites to shape the layout of towns and cities and enable various types of development.
In Nairobi, the zoning regulation has divided the capital into 15 areas with a specific height of building and building type allowed.
Mr Karanja pointed out that officers from the planning department had colluded with unscrupulous developers and put up buildings in total disregard of the zoning policy, which guides on how many floors a structure should have and the maximum number of buildings allowed for in a certain zone.
He said the situation has been fuelled by the existence of cartels in the county comprising of sub-county administrators, planning officers and enforcement officers who are allowing the illegal structures to be put up.
The Waithaka MCA appealed to Governor Mike Sonko to rein in rogue officers from the urban planning and housing department who were responsible for the haphazard building of structures.
[Full article: Business Daily, by Collins Omulo]
