CA street name plan headed for public hearings

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) is set to roll out public participation on the planned National Addressing System (NAS) policy that is set to ease door-to-door delivery of letters and goods bought from online retailers like Jumia.

NAS, which provides for among others, the naming or numbering of streets and property as well as coding to facilitate easy identification and location of places, wants to get stakeholders’ views before moving on with implementation.

The initiative involves the development of digitised maps for use in the management of settlements and urban communities.

According to the Ministry of Information, unique identification numbers for buildings and naming of streets will make it possible for service providers such as cab operators to locate passengers while supermarkets and those who deal in food will be able to reach their clients easily.

“… the NAS steering committee hereby invites all proponents of the parallel initiatives to first liaise with the national committee in order to ensure harmonised implementation of NAS,” said the CA in a statement.

The committee has developed draft instruments for both national and county NAS template Bills and NAS database management framework among others. These will be subjected to the requisite public consultation and validation processes. “An accurate NAS is critical to the quality and cost-effective provision of innumerable services including emergency management as well as administration, research, publications, mapping, routing, navigation, electronic commerce among others,” the CA said.

The NAS steering committee comprises the Council of Governors representing all counties, Ministry of Lands, Kenya Bureau of Standards, Postal Corporation of Kenya, Kenya Urban Roads Authority and Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

Others are the Attorney General, Kenya Law Reform Commission, Treasury, Office of the President, and Ministry of Interior. Meanwhile, CA has urged postal and courier licensees to adhere to the Postal and Courier Security Management Framework such as taking reasonable steps in improving mail security and combating postal crimes.