I was privileged to attend a forum organized by KARA at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Upper Hill Nairobi. At this meeting a number of issues were discussed.
The Nairobi County boss, Dr. Evans Kidero was in attendance. He revealed to the participants that Nairobi loses 14 percent of water as Non-Revenue Water.
Dangerous Buildings
The governor was asked to explain why his government has not been pulling down dangerous buildings in the city. He blamed court cases for the inaction.
Open Playgrounds
A number of open playgrounds in Nairobi have been grabbed. It was reveled that private developers have been drilling boreholes on those grounds. The participants demanded to know why so many boreholes were being drilled in Nairobi.
There are 3,140 boreholes in Nairobi County and counting. The Water Resource Authority is in charge of issuing licenses to those people who want to drill boreholes on their land. It’s is not Nairobi County function.
S.G. Mwangi talking on land grabbing said that this is a problem that we will have to bear with for some time. If true, it was relieving to learn that the city county has never issues even a single plot since it got into office.
Roads
Engineer Karanja, the Chief Officer for Roads addressed concerns on why the county government doesn’t seem to be doing enough in terms of infrastructure development. He mentioned that the presence of many players in the sector (KERRA and KURA) and most of the resources are with those agencies.
The Chief Officer said that Nairobi County is expecting to receive funding from the Kenya Roads Board to promote infrastructure service delivery.
City Planning
Senior Officer from the city planning department informed the participants that cities globally grow in an orderly manner if they follow a plan.
In Nairobi, the first integrated plan was started in 2012 and completed in 2014. For efficient service delivery, the city is working on subdividing the urban area into small areas to to benefit from Integrated Area Detail Plan.
Dangerous Houses Marked For Demolition
The planning officer mentioned that some estates such as South C, Westlands and Kileleshwa are threatened by market forces. These are are being swallowed by high compact development. This is an idea supported by the County government. This concept includes replacing maisonettes with high rise buildings in order to accommodate more people hence better service delivery.
New Policies
The City government was asked to state on any new policies that they are working on. They mentioned that they have a Zoning Policy to enhance smooth service delivery.
Illegal Kiosks
Asked to explain on what action the County is doing about the illegal kiosks, they responded that there are numerous court cases blocking their demolitions.
Nairobi has markets set aside but small traders prefer selling their goods on the streets. This causes a lot of commotion on the streets and makes it difficult for service delivery to happened in an organized manner.
End
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