Why Kenya’s planners are a worried lot

Motorists drive through floods on Mombasa’s Malindi Road. Planners have at times been unfairly blamed for such occurrences. [PHOTO: MAARUFU MOHAMED/ STANDARD]

NAIROBI: At a recent conference organised by the Kenya Institute of Planners, local planners raised a number of concerns they feel must be addressed urgently.

Whereas they appreciated the new opportunities created by both the national and county governments, they felt that the Kenyan public is not sufficiently informed about the role of planners and, therefore, wrongly targeting them for criticism whenever a building collapses, or more recently, for the flooding that inundated several towns in the country.