NMS revoke ‘vertical slum’ of 870 bed-sitter units in Kilimani by a Chinese developer
A Chinese developer has been discontinued from further construction of a fifteen-storey residential apartment comprising 870 units of bed-sitters, studios and one bedroom in Kilimani by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) using falsified building plans.
NMS issued a stoppage and enforcement order against Ever Forgarden Company Limited after disapproving the building plans termed as illegal following a petition by area residents to NMS Director General Major General Mohammed Badi through their lawyer Lesinko Njoroge & Gathogo Advocates.
According to the Nairobi County Director for Lands, Housing and Urban Renewal, Urban Planning and Development, S. G. Mwangi, the development overwhelmingly exceeds the ground coverage and plot ratios permissible within Kilimani area categorised as Zone Four and thus illegal.
“870 number of units on 0.463 hectares are not acceptable since they exceed the ratios provided. You are therefore, advised to stop further construction forthwith as per our enforcement notice to avoid legal action from Nairobi Metropolitan Services.” Mwangi said through a correspondence addressed to Ever Forgarden Company Limited.
The development on a one care piece of land on L.R No.1/402 along Kindaruma Road in Nairobi flouts the Zoning Policy of Nairobi City County for Zone 4 (Kilimani area) and provisions of Physical Planning and Land Use Act, No.13 of 2019.
“Our officers visited the site on December 10, 2021 and the following was established: (i) the building plan are not properly drawn and do not provide sufficient information and lounges are not ventilated. Setback on basement is not observed and no traffic management report was provided.” The building plans disapproval notice reads in part.
According to documents in our possession, the now condemned building plans had been controversially approved on October 13, 2021 but it was later established they had not met the required set guidelines under the set By-Laws and Physical and Land Use Planning Act (PLUPA) No.13 of 2019.
The developer has engaged Green World Consultants Ltd as the architects of the project.
An enforcement notice dated December 20, 2021 now requires the developer to re-submit satisfactory buildings plans which abide to the set building guidelines and PLUPA regulations for this zone.
Kilimani residents and neighbours now want parallel investigations to be conducted to establish how the illegal approvals had been made and parties involved.
In Zone Four, county By-Laws requires public participation of residents for developments with more than 100 units which was never conducted.
Concerns are rife that such a development will only escalate the already strained amenities such as sewer, water, traffic flow, security dynamics amongst others.
Further, there are plans to petition the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK), Building Inspectorate under the State Department of Public Works, The Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya (ACEK), Planners Association of Kenya and the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) over the matter.
In the past, a report by a taskforce and a team of investigators formed to undertake forensic investigations into at least 200 buildings whose construction approvals were deemed questionable revealed a total of 400 buildings out of the audited 3, 914 buildings in Huruma alone have failed structural test and thus should be demolished.
In August 2016, three people were killed after a wall collapsed and trapped them underneath while digging trenches along Brookside Drive in Nairobi’s Westlands.
Four months earlier, three others were killed after a perimeter wall on Lenana Road collapsed on them as they shielded from the rain in what was attributed to poor workmanship.
