Planning regulations needed for counties

Majority of our urban areas are in a sorry state due to lack of a developing policy. The same fates awaits our counties unless we develop a harmonised policy on urban development, writes Harold Ayodo

Before Independence, visiting Nairobi from rural areas required a permit from the Colonial Government. Natives were required to state valid reasons and period of their visit, these being efforts towards controlling the population and planning for the capital city.

According to the University of Nairobi Land Economics scholar Prof Paul Syagga, who is also a senior task force consultant in the Civil Society Urban Development Programme (CSUDP), vetting the visitors worked until Independence in 1963.

"You could not come to work in Nairobi if you had no place to live… employers like Kenya Railways were forced to construct houses and were, hence, mandated under Employment Ordinance to provide housing to their employees. "The Colonial Government would not allow people to have househelps in Nairobi unless servants quarters were within the compound," Prof Syagga says.

These rules were strictly adhered to as Nairobi was planned for only 100,000 people. The issuance of passes for visitors also was a means to keep the unemployed away from the city.

Fast forward to today. Three out of every five people in Nairobi (60 per cent) live in informal settlements, occupying a paltry five per cent of residential land. After the city became a free for all, most private developers threw caution to the wind and erected buildings without caring about approvals from local authorities.

Red flag

Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) chairman Steven Oundo, says majority of residential and commercial buildings countrywide are bogus.

"Slightly over 60 per cent of buildings in Nairobi alone are not approved and have glaring architectural defects," Oundo says.

He points out areas like Nairobi’s Dandora and Ongata Rongai, which have towering residential flats that go up to even eight floors without planned sewer and water lines. Other estates where the professional association has raised the red flag include Eastleigh, Kayole, Kiambu, Kasarani, Umoja and along Outerring Road.

AAK says the buildings were either not approved by the City Council or private developers changed the plans after approval. Consequently, majority of the buildings are structurally defective and the State ought to save lives by pulling them down.

"No qualified architect would design such structures knowing they risk punishment by AAK over professional negligence," says Oundo.

Legally, the architects draw building plans and forward them to Nairobi City Council for approval before developers get on site.

Poor planning and weak urban economies led to wanting shelters despite provisions for housing, sanitation and water rights in the Constitution.

It is for similar reasons that most residential areas in Nairobi — apart from the upmarket — live with over flowing sewers and burst water supply pipes.

Currently, the rate of urbanisation in the country is the highest in the region with an urban population growth of 4.4 per cent. According to the 2009 census, the population of urban areas increased by 26 per cent up from 9.9 million in 1999 to 12.5 million two years ago.

Informal settlements

Furthermore, 32.4 per cent of the population today lives in urban areas as experts predict that urban dwellers will dominate national population by 2020. However, majority of the urban dwellers live in informal settlements with limited access to water, sanitation and proper housing.

Currently, rapid urbanisation has overstretched the capacity of the Government to control physical growth and provide essential services like water and sanitation. Today, planning experts have raised a red flag over uncertainties following the provision of 47 Counties in the Constitution.

Professionals in real estate, construction management and land economics say expected competition among the counties may lead to a planning nightmare. They say the challenge would be these counties would want to have a city that looks more urbanised than others.

Therefore, experts concur that a National Urban Development Policy (NUDP) would salvage the situation. Furthermore, there are more than 70 statutes that govern urban development countrywide, yet a harmonised legislation would be better.

Currently, the barrage of urbanisation laws create conflicts and overlaps among key stakeholders with effects of improper co-ordination. However, the Ministry of Local Government and CSUDP are in the infant stages of developing an all-inclusive NUDP.

"Majority of our urban areas are in a sorry state following lack of a policy, which made them grow haphazardly," Prof Syagga says.

According to CSUDP Senior Consultant Advisor Anne Karanja, a policy on urban development would provide a framework for sustainable development.

"Ensuring efficient delivery of urban infrastructure, services, amenities and planning would be entrenched in the policy," Karanja says.

Karanja, who is also a scholar at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), says the policy would address challenges of urban development.

"Research shows that lack of a policy impacts negatively on social development, which is crucial for economic growth," she says.

According to CSUDP Programme Coordinator George Wasonga, addressing urgent needs in towns is a concern.

"Improved management, access to basic services, governance and coordination particularly for the urban poor is a concern," Wasonga says.

Urbanisation is key to overall development in Africa but rapid urbanisation is among the major planning issues in the continent.

"In 1962, one out of every 12 Kenyans lived in urban centres compared with an annual growth rate of 3.9 per cent per annum between 2005 and 2010," Wasonga says.

By 1999, human population in urban areas increased to 34.5 per cent, which translates to about 10 million people meaning one of every three people, live in urban areas.

Therefore, facilities in urban areas would be more overstretched in 2015 as the population in urban areas is projected to shoot to 16.5 million and 23.6 million by 2030.

"Population growth is more pronounced in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Kakamega, Eldoret, Thika, Nyeri, Kericho, Nakuru and Bungoma," Wasonga says.

Over the past decade, the main urban challenge facing the country has been how to marshal physical, financial, human and technical resources.

"Opportunities and challenges of development will be increasingly concentrated in urban areas, which are considered engines of development from national to local levels," Wasonga says.

Further urbanisation has recently been accelerated by natural population growth, rural urban migration, boundary extension and expansion.

Blue print

Wasonga argues that poor performance of agriculture and rural development is making small trading centres develop faster.

Prof Syagga says adherence to planning regulations would ensure organised residential and commercial developments. For instance, European and Asian areas that were planned in colonial times maintain their leafy status to date.

"Westlands, Karen, Muthaiga, Hurlingham and Muthangari, which were predominantly white inhabited areas, have remained leafy," Prof Syagga says.

However, planned areas for natives like in Eastlands Kariaokor, Jericho and Kaloleni have lost their status over the years.

"People who lacked houses started squatting and informal settlements cropped up without any planning," Prof Syagga says.

He says parts of Kibera developed into a slum after the British Government brought in Nubians from Sudan after the Second World War.

"Nubians were to stay in Kibera temporarily and be resettled after planning, but they are yet to be moved to date," Prof Syagga says.

Separately, a land buying company bought Zimmerman and informally sub-divided it, selling it to people who developed structures without legal approval.

Most developers hide from planning as it would require they leave 20 per cent of their land for development of services. Prof Syagga advocates for land banking where authorities buy land and plan in advance before human settlement.

"We can go into existing informal settlements and provide infrastructure meaning some structures will have to go, but we should not demolish more than ten per cent of the structures," he says.

Realistically, a town should be planned for a period of 30 years before another plan is set up, which has not been the case.

"Approximately 70 per cent of land in any town should be set aside for residential housing," Prof Syagga says.

"We have never had strategic development plans for towns although Nairobi attempted in 1948 and 1973 but were never implemented. However, planning and controlling developments is another thing…It must be a participatory process," Prof Syagga says.

A policy on development would ensure a blue print for 47 counties, he adds.

"We would know what facilities and infrastructure to expect in all urban areas unlike the current situation," Prof Syagga says.