Nairobians pay for sins of poor land planning

In the wee hours of May 4, bulldozers descended on Nairobi’s Kariobangi Sewage slum. Women and children hopelessly watched as structures that had housed them since 2008 were reduced to a rubble to reclaim land initially set aside for sewerage.

A few weeks earlier, other settlers in designated sewerage land in Ruai had suffered a similar fate as the State brought down their houses, most of them built using loans and in one broad stroke they were rendered homeless.

Then four months later traders at Githurai Kimbo market woke up to find their structures flattened. The government had moved to reclaim railway land. The same was the case at Mutindwa market. The repossessed land, Kenya Railways Corporation said, will be used for construction of the Nairobi mass transit railway.

In defending the demolitions at the Githurai Kimbo market, Kenya Railways Managing Director Philip Mainga said that the land reserve had been grabbed by politicians, churches, and businesses.

But it is not just slum dwellers and small traders who have suffered the sting of eviction and demolition. Two years ago, owners of South End Mall in Nairobi tried, without success, to stop the national environment watchdog from bringing down the multimillion-shilling investment built on a wetland.

These recent strings of evictions and destruction of property have exposed the ugly side of poor land and infrastructure planning. Over the years, as the population increased rapidly, development become uncontrolled and land grabbing thrived amid laxity by State officers to enforce regulations.

As the government moves to repossess land and put it into the originally intended use, planning experts reckon that though not blameless, the demolition and eviction victims are paying for the sins of poor land panning and documentation.

“The demolitions and evictions being witnessed are as a result of poor planning and laxity in development control by concerned authorities,” said Mairura Omwenga, chairman of Town and County Planners Association of Kenya.

No red flags

Laxity in development control means that areas reserved for construction of schools, railway or roads were encroached by unauthorised individuals.

A case in point is the iconic Taj Mall in Embakasi that was destroyed in September 2018 to pave way for expansion of Outer Ring Road.

Mr Rameshchandra Gorasia,owner of the mall maintained he got approvals for construction in 1995 and had renewed them seven times since then. No red flags were raised.

His assertion that the approvals were given based on “the title deed which was genuine and the land rates which were all paid”, further casts doubts on the quality of documentation.

National Construction Authority (NCA) executive director Maurice Akech said lack of proper documentation is a major cause of the painful, but inevitable evictions.

“The main issue among many other factors in the affected areas is lack of land ownership documents that would allow for submission for approval for development control,” he explained.

Upon close scrutiny, it is evident that the evictions are more rampant in Eastlands area where majority of low income Kenyans reside. This is largely attributed to lack of proper documentation.

This is unlike high income areas such as Karen and Runda which were formerly owned by British colonial officials and European settlers. During the colonial era, Africans and Indians faced serious racial discrimination, pushing them to live in extreme poverty.

“Majority ended up in Eastlands where land ownership documents were not properly handled,” explained Mr Omwenga.

Aside from the historical bearing, residents in high income estates, unlike their Eastlands counterparts, demand to know what the neighbour is doing.

City master plan

Residents in estates such as Runda, Kilimani and Karen have put up a united front against any development activities attempting to take shape in their neighbourhood without their consent.

In March 2016 residents of Karen opposed construction of Karen Village Culture and Heritage Centre in court over cleanliness just like their Runda counterparts in 2017 opposed construction of a posh hotel citing breach of security and requirements of controlled development.

The same was witnessed in Kilimani when residents successfully stopped construction of Cytonn’s 35-storey tower, citing potential disruption of lives and businesses.

In 1948 Kenya developed its very first City Master Plan that envisioned Nairobi to be a green city, affectionately referred to as the ‘green city in the sun’.

The plan developed at the time the population of Nairobi was less than 50,000 people pictured a city with broad boulevards, roundabouts as well as areas of parkland and forest reserves.

However, urbanisation has seen the population grow rapidly leading to emergence of informal settlements as the scramble for shelter and a livelihood take centre stage.

No development plan

In the absence of a robust development plan, structures have been erected on road reserves, riparian land and footpaths as demand for space for carrying out income-generating activities intensifies.

In an attempt to correct the chaotic situation, the government has stepped up issuance of titles to owners in Nairobi and other parts of the country.

For instance, in August President Uhuru Kenyatta said land documents would be given to more than 30,000 residents of Embakasi Ranching Company, Tassia estate and the Korogocho and Mbagathi informal settlements as part of the National Titling Programme which has seen more than five million ownership documents issued in several parts of the country in the past seven years.