Planners say no to building authority

By John Oyuke

Kenya Institute of Planners (KIP) has opposed the formation of a new parastatal to oversee the planning and construction of buildings in the country.

KIP chairman Prof Johnstone Kiamba said the creation of a new agency to approve building plans and supervise construction is a waste of public funds and a step in the wrong direction.

He instead called for strengthening of local authorities to implement building laws.

Failure to enforce laws

"We believe that the collapse of buildings, which largely informs the creation of this agency, does not result out of lack of laws, but because of failure to enforce these laws," Kiamba said.

Early this month, Housing Minister Soita Shitanda presented to stakeholders in the building and construction industry a draft Buildings Bill presented that proposes setting up of a National Planning and Building Authority.

If passed into law, local authorities could lose power to authorise the construction of buildings.

The draft Bill proposes to repeal the Physical Planning Act, Cap 286, and regulations contained in the Building Code.

The process to set up the agency comes 13 years after the collapse of a supermarket that killed 16 people in Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD).

Kiamba said the task should be to examine current building code, which is a conglomeration of various statutes, and develop a new set of building regulations for adoption by the local authorities.

He contended that the role of enforcing building regulations is the mandate of local authorities all over the world. Kiamba called for the formation of planning departments in all local authorities to enhance their planning capacity.

planning department

He noted that only Nairobi City Council has an operational planning department, which on the flipside has only 15 planners as opposed to the required 60.

In July, the acting director of planning at the City Council, Tom Odongo, said City Hall had only 20 building inspectors for the whole of Nairobi.

 

 

Read all about: Housing Minister Soita Shitanda National Planning and Building Authority Central Business District

 

 

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