Nairobi marks World Town Planning Day

By Millicent Muthoni

In the wake of the World Town Planning Day marked last week on Saturday, the city of Nairobi remains contested by three key planning authorities: the Director of City Planning, the Department of City Planning at the City Council of Nairobi, and the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development. All three players have the mandate to plan the city, which has been fed on piecemeal plans since the last master plan expired in 2001.

Urban planners say the situation needs to be rationalised to prevent unnecessary tussles which will delay the strategic plan for a city that is in dire need of order.

When the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development was formed, it moved fast to ameliorate the decay caused by lack of planning. It has produced the Metropolitan Area draft Bill, which if passed into law, will give it the mandate to plan the city.

The ministry has, in the meantime, announced a competition for the planning of Nairobi. The international competition reaches out to professionals in urban planning and related disciplines to present strategic city plans for consideration.

The Nairobi Metropolitan Development Ministry was created in response to the need to integrate the area under the city’s footprint. Its mandate is to plan, manage and develop the Nairobi Metropolis, which comprises Nairobi city and its surrounding outskirts.

Town and regional plans

Meanwhile, the Director of Physical Planning at the Ministry of Lands is tasked with preparing all town and regional plans in the country. These plans are then implemented by the Councils as stipulated in the Physical Planning Act, Cap 286, of 1996.

Nairobi City Council though, due to the size of the city and the Council’s capacity, has the mandate to prepare plans for the city of Nairobi. However, the Director of City Planning at the Nairobi City Council is still answerable to the Director of Physical Planning.

It is, therefore, clear that the buck stops with the Director of Physical Planning, who has so far failed to take a leading role in the planning of the city.

The city chokes with proliferating slums, traffic jams, unplanned development and environmental degradation.

If the Metropolitan Area Bill is passed, it will effectively override the Physical Planning Act in the metropolitan area. While the role of planning should be decentralised to councils, metropolitan areas and even the private sector, the Director of City Planning, however, should not be stripped the role of oversight on planning issues. The directorate should remain as the regulating authority.

Metropolitan Bill

During the celebration of this year’s World Town Planning Day, the International Society for City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) launched its liaison office in Nairobi.