LGI News: Give priority to urban planning

Picture from Jimnah Mbaru.com Story by JIMNAH MBARU (Daily Nation 9/8/2007)

["The transition from short to long term planning as represented by vision 2030 is a step in the right direction. Vision 2030 and its predecessor, the Economic Recovery Strategy, are watershed documents whose implementation will forever change the destiny and direction of the nation. The proof of the pudding, however, is in the eating. Time has come to start laying the foundation for implementing Vision 2030. Some of the items in the document require urgent bold policy actions. The Problem Of Urban Planning and development is one of them. According to Vision 2030, the population of Kenya will reach 60 million in the next 23 years. This will put Kenya in the same demographic league as current day Egypt. OTHER THAN THIS, THE MORE worrying phenomenon is that 65-70 per cent of the population will be residing in urban areas. Nairobi alone is expected grow to a population of 15 million people by 2030. This development will come with many challenges. While the entire country will bear the burden of providing resources for this big population, the urban areas will bear a disproportionate part of this burden. This will manifest itself in various ways. First, the increased urban population will have unique demographic traits, with high proportions of the youth and single parents. More young people will be moving from the rural areas to the urban areas in search of education and employment. Second, the already stretched resources in the urban areas will reach a crisis level unless measures are put in place to avert the inevitable. Housing and transportation will be key issues. One cannot belabour the problems with traffic jams in our major urban areas, especially in Nairobi and Mombasa. Intervention Left to their own devices, other urban problems will not just disappear. On the contrary, they will be aggravated as we move towards 2030. Pollution will not disappear through divine intervention and the crisis in council-run health and educational facilities can only get worse. Lack of sports and other recreational facilities will only be exacerbated by the rapid population growth and rural urban migration. Security, if an issue today, will be worse in another 23 years. All these issues do not require small, incremental improvements in the way we approach urban planning. On the contrary, they require strategic thinking and planning. This strategic thinking will necessitate restructuring of the bodies responsible for the management of urban centres. Today there appears to be no clear ownership of the planning processes in urban areas. Functions and responsibilities are straddled between various ministries. For example, the ministry of Housing whose mandate is to develop housing units has to ‘’beg’’ the city or town councils under the Ministry of Local Government to approve plans. While the councils are semi-autonomous in matters of health and education, the dependence on the parent Health and Education ministries is significant. THESE MANY LAYERS CREATE multiple glitches in urban management. To move to a more strategic approach, the starting point is to establish clear, single ownership of the urban planning responsibility. This could be done through the creation of a ministry for Housing and Urban Planning. A ministry for Housing and Urban Planning would largely inherit all the functions of the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Local Government. It by consolidating such functions that we can prepare our cities for the new challenges ahead. Mr Mbaru is the chairman of the Nairobi Stock Exchange"]

LGI News: Mayor wants new political city

Story by NATION Correspondents (9/7/2007)

A proposal to build a new political capital for Kenya has received the full backing of city mayor Dick Wathika. Saying this would speed up development, Mr Wathika added that moving administrative offices to a separate location would create room for the expansion of Nairobi as a commercial city. The mayor spoke in his office yesterday after he received an invitation from the Rotary Club members to attend its forthcoming African Conference. “I fully support moving the administrative offices to a new capital city and maintain Nairobi as a commercial city because it’s already too congested,” he said. But the new capital should be far away from Nairobi but in a spacious location to accommodate expansion. “It should not be too close to the commercial city so that we can have serious activities in two major capitals,” the mayor said. He proposed that Parliament be the first to be moved to the administrative city once it has been identified and named. This, he explained, would encourage other administrative offices to move to the new capital. Creating a new capital would require expansion of infrastructure and should therefore be well planned, Mr Wathika said.

LGI News: Nairobi residents root for law on house rent

By Morris Aron of BD Africa (06-September-2007)

Nairobi residents yesterday supported plans to introduce a new law on house rents, saying it was the only way to curb runaway rise in the cost of living in the country.

Kenya Alliance of Residents Associations (KARA), however, cautioned that the enactment of the law should be accompanied by policies that will encourage construction of more housing units to address the supply shortage that is the main cause of landlord belligerence.

Besides, KARA said inefficiency, corruption and laxity were to blame for inability of the Rents Tribunal to deal with a housing crisis in the country.

Mr Stephen Mutoro, the chairman of KARA, told Business Daily that though exploitation of tenants had reached overwhelming proportions in recent times, regulations being proposed should not override the normal functioning of a free market economy.

“It is important that the relevant arms of the government deal with the underlying problem of supply shortage, while at the same time ensuring that property developers do not take advantage of the situation to exploit middle income earners,” said Mr Mutoro.

KARA also criticised landlords who cheat tenants into vacating houses claiming they are due for renovation, only to bring in new tenants at higher rents.

Mr Mutoro said such cases should be dealt with through the enactment of stringent laws on eviction and tenancy agreements. The association further asked the government to find sustainable ways of reducing the cost of construction materials to make housing more affordable to the majority of middle income earners.

KARA also said an influx of refugees was partly to blame for the acute housing problem in key cities such as Nairobi, as well as failure by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) to clearly define “middle income” earners in the country.

The organisation also put employers on the spot for failing to provide housing or pay their employees house allowances that enable them live comfortably.
KARA said the house allowance phenomenon was quickly disappearing from the Kenyan corporate scene, with companies choosing to engage in discrimination when it comes to housing their employees.

Unlike the civil service, most companies do not offer housing allowance except for top management.

“Companies need to play a more pro-active role in housing employees as it is one of their basic needs,”said Mr Mutoro.

KARA was reacting to a story in yesterday’s Business Daily on the proposed enactment of a law to establish a new rents tribunal that will hear disputes from tenants paying rents of up to Sh20,000 or bellow.

The new rent ceiling accounts for 70 per cent of all tenants in Nairobi.

LGI News: Nairobi City Council a top polluter, says Nema

By Morris Aron of BD Africa (06-September-2007)

Nairobi City Council (NCC) has been declared a top polluter for its failure to comply with solid waste transportation, disposal, and management regulation that were introduced four months ago.

National Environment Monitoring Authority (Nema) says City Hall may now face legal action for gross neglect of dumping sites and use of unroadworthy vehicles in transporting solid waste.

Apart from using old and dilapidated trucks to transport waste, Nema said City Hall had failed to fence dump sites or establish a mechanism to manage fires in dumpsites.

Mr Benjamin Langwen, the director of compliance and enforcement at Nema said none of NCC’s vehicles meets the waste disposal requirements stipulated in the new regulations.

“We have indicated to the council that if they do not comply and without any future reference, Nema will take them to court,” said Mr Langwen.

Failure to comply with waste disposal standards carries a penalty of Sh500,000 or a prison term of 18 months.

Ms Leah Oyake, the director of environment at NCC, however said she had not received any complaints from Nema regarding the councils non-compliance with solid waste disposal regulations.

“I am not aware of any new rules and regulations on solid waste disposal that have been fronted by Nema nor am I aware of any failure by City Hall to comply,” said Ms Oyake.

The new regulations demand that vehicle transporting waste be in good working condition, be clearly labelled as carrying garbage and have the waste fully covered while in transit.

Drivers of the vehicles are also required to have a manifest indicating the source of the waste, the type of waste and the intended disposal site for environmental audit purposes and accountability.

Nema, which is set to issue the first batch of compliance certificates to 300 companies, described the level of compliance among local authorities as above average.

Seventeen vehicles in Nairobi and 100 country wide are also set to receive waste disposal compliance certificates.

Mr Lagwen said Nema had embarked on an aggressive campaign to inform business owners on the specific requirements to raise the level of compliance. “A number of companies do not know that the regulations exist nor what they are required to comply with,” he said.

In April, Nema introduced a new set of regulations on effluent and solid waste management and disposal to curb air, soil and water pollution, especially in Nairobi.

According to Nema, other councils have registered a higher compliance rates compared to Nairobi which has more resources and can easily implement the regulations.

The authority is now threatening to invite private investors in to the multi million garbage disposal business to introduce competition and increase levels of compliance.

LGI News: A Metropolitan Authority for Nairobi is long overdue

"TO SAY THAT KENYA TODAY IS not short of ideas to improve the quality of life in its cities is not an understatement. What Kenya lacks is the resolve and prime movers to implement policy.
Last week’s announcement by Local Government minister Musikari Kombo that the Government has approved the formation of Nairobi Metropolitan Authority (NMA), which will be responsible for planning the city and its suburbs is excellent news. If this decision is implemented, Nairobi will attract significant investments in the next few years.
In the recent past, many investors have voiced worries that unless we address the issue of urban planning urgently, Nairobi will be damaged beyond repair.

Existing pressures from unplanned and sprawling human settlements, increasing population density, swelling unmanaged traffic volumes, and harmful environmental trends are not consistent with Nairobi’s sustainable development.

THE FIRST STEP FOR NMA, THEREfore, when it becomes operational, is to tackle two issues which are derailing the positive growth and development of Nairobi.

The first is to review Nairobi’s boundary. This is important so that Nairobians can benefit from effective management as well as receiving sufficient allocation of resources.

Since Kenya attained independence in 1963, Nairobi boundary has not been redefined. Prior to that, the boundary had been reviewed four times.

According to Winnie Mitullah in the publication, Urban Slums Report: The Case of Nairobi, Kenya, in 1906, a year before Nairobi became the capital of Kenya, it occupied 1,813 hectares and its population was 11,512.

In 1927, the boundary was extended to cover 2,537 hectares, or 77 square kilometres. The population in 1928 was 29,864. After 20 years, the boundary was reviewed again.
In 1948, Nairobi occupied 8,315 hectares and the population was 118,976. Come 1963, the boundary was extended to cover 68,945 hectares or 686 square kilometres. The population by then had reached 342,764. Since then, there has been no boundary change in Nairobi despite its enormous growth and population increase.

Since it is imperative that Nairobi continues to fulfil its potential as a modern cosmopolitan city and an exemplar of contemporary living, there is an urgent need to redefine its boundary.
The second burning issue is the fast-tracking of the concept of a 24-hour city as envisaged in Vision 2030. As of today, the City Council has a very narrow perception of the night-time economy.

Night life provision and night time economy in Nairobi are insufficient and underdeveloped. They can be grouped into two broad categories. On one hand is a dense network of licensed bars, casinos, fast-food outlets, lodgings and nightclubs. On the other hand, we have a dense network of drug dealings and commercial sex.

Now, because of frequent harassment of commercial sex workers by authorities on the main streets of the city centre, this trade is shifting towards upmarket Westlands and Kilimani areas.
The boisterous downtown chain of bars and lodgings provides fun, sex havens and hedonistic atmosphere for average Kenyans who want to have good time. However, there is high night crime rates in these areas. And as a result, night life security has emerged as a major employment sector.

WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE, MAINstream night life in Nairobi continues to play an important role in our culture and economy as dwindling middle class earners seek places of release.

Now, the night time economy is a much more complex phenomenon than this. From a business point of view, it requires a range of interconnecting strategies and an interdisciplinary sensibility.

For Nairobi to attain a 24-hour city status and be able to attract international investors as envisaged in Vision 2030, we need to design, plan, and position Nairobi as one of the world’s intelligent cities.

The intelligent city concept rides on a wider concept of knowledge-based society. One of its goals is to create new and innovative sets of inter-operable, electronic government and private sector services that provide instant information about all aspects of a city via interactive city-wide, Internet-based applications.

Nairobi will then have new forms of electronic governance, greater social inclusion, as well as greater competitive advantages through enlarged access to services for citizens, visitors and businesspeople.

Mr Kitau is the managing director, Bruce Trucks and Equipments (EA) Ltd."

LGI News: City Grinding to a Halt

From Daily Nation (8/28/2007)

"Of late, great concern has been raised over the state of Nairobi which is bursting at the seams, and a number of solutions offered. One of the issues that have emerged is that the city does not have a masterplan, the last one having been formulated and ignored back in 1973. It has also emerged that the capital city’s boundaries have never been revised since those days when it was populated by a few thousands, to a situation where the population is approaching the 4 million mark. Without a development plan, and with a bunch of somnolent city fathers being ‘‘elected’’ to office after every two years to do everything but think about their city, Nairobi has continued to grow rapidly, in a haphazard fashion, and with very undesirable results. Nairobi’s woes are interminable. Right now, its slums accommodate at least 60 per cent of its dwellers, which means at least 2.5 million souls have no proper shelter, food, water and sanitation. The second major problem is more immediate; the city has become impossibly congested. Even after hawkers and street families were moved, one can still not walk the pavements comfortably. Now, people cannot be wished away, and nor can the huge number of vehicles which make traffic jams all around the city a daily nightmare. Even before a masterplan to solve these and many other problems is formulated, some ideas being floated are worth considering. There is no reason why a brand new capital city cannot be built as the seat of government while Nairobi remains the commercial centre. It has happened in Tanzania and in Nigeria. Why can’t it be tried here?"