Property owners within the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) have been given two weeks to repaint and redecorate their premises or face legal action.
Acting County Secretary Leboo Morintat said after the expiry of the 14 days, unspecified legal measures will be instituted to ensure the notice is fully complied with.
This will be the third time this year that a similar order has been issued, probably showing the poor success rate.
A tour of the CBD returns a hodgepodge, making it difficult to know the original colours of the buildings.
This has been made worse by grafitti and posters that stay in place long after the intended campaigns are over. It goes on despite the ‘No Posters’ warnings by property owners.
Mr Morintat said the notice is anchored in law, including county by-laws and the Public Health Cap 242 on maintaining healthy and quality standards of general public health.
Mr Morintat, without giving any specific colour that the building owners should adopt, explained that the move to clean, repaint or redecorate was aimed at improving beauty of the capital city.
This is to enhance the appeal of the city which has been globally recognised among the most dynamic, innovative resilient cities and is also a strategic economic and commercial hub of East and Central Africa.
“It is hereby notified to all property owners in the Nairobi CBD that they should clean, repaint or redecorate their buildings as required by law,” said Mr Morintat on Wednesday in a newspaper notice.
At the same time, the notice gave a blanket approval to property owners to improve plot frontages — the area between a plot boundary and road kerb.
This will affect properties within and along Uhuru Highway, Nairobi River and Ring Road Pumwani, and Haile Selassie Avenue.
If successfully implemented, Nairobi will become the second county after Mombasa to effect such a directive.
In June, last year, Governor Hassan Joho issued an executive order requiring residential and commercial buildings in Mombasa’s Central Business District (CBD) to be painted in a uniform blue colour to symbolise the Indian Ocean.
However, this is not the first time that Nairobi County has asked property owners within the city to repaint their buildings.
In May this year, City Hall gave the same property owners 30 days to paint and carry out renovations to their buildings.
Mike Sonko, the governor, warned that action would be taken against individuals who fail to comply with the order.
“County laws require that property owners repaint their premises after every two years to maintain healthy and quality standards and so those who have not complied with the by-laws should do so before we start taking action,” said Mr Sonko at the time.
Nonetheless, this was after a similar order in January where the owners of buildings were directed to repaint as part of a beautification project.
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