Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) Thursday held a public participation forum with stakeholders and the local residents of Mukuru informal settlement in Embakasi Central Constituency, to come up with the way forward on matters of construction of buildings and other structures in the area.
Speaking at Mukuru Health Centre, NMS Deputy Director of Planning Lilian Kieni said they have commenced the exercise of inspection and audit of all buildings in Nairobi County to ensure that all constructions comply with the set guidelines of planning.
Kieni said during this period of Covid-19 pandemic, most of the developers undertaking construction works have been taking advantage of the situation to build over the weekends, public holidays and at night as enforcement has not been regular.
“We have those kinds of building which have come up, they have no approvals and those which have approvals the wordings are for something else and not what is on the ground,” she stated.
The Deputy Director said NMS will continue to engage with the public on matters of development unlike before to enable the citizenry have an input on the projects initiated in their areas and emphasized on the need of those constructing buildings to adhere to hygiene standards.
Kieni also urged members of the public to always get information they need on construction from the NMS officials and other stakeholders, before they commence construction works, adding that currently approvals will be taking a record of seven days.
However, she noted that more informal settlements will be identified to benefit from planning and survey for tenure regularization.
The three-day planning compliance programme organized by NMS to sensitize members of the public on the need to adhere to the construction standards are in line with the President’s vision of changing the face of informal settlements in the capital city, an idea that is gradually taking shape.
In November last year, the government through the Kenya Urban Roads Authority, embarked on a Sh5.8 billion project to open city slums by constructing 408 kilometer of access roads.
By Hamdi Mohamud
