Urban Land Development and Planning Law in Kenya: the Case of Nairobi City and Bordering Urban Areas

Abstract

The dissertation focuses on urban land development in Kenya, using Nairobi city and bordering urban areas as a case study to illustrate critical problems of metropolitan planning in Kenya. The study is an attempt to assess the planning and management of urban land development by agencies of the central government, local authorities and private land owners, and explores the role of planning law. The planning law is ineffective in the planning and management of urban land development. The law is dominated by statutory provisions which were imported in the form of ordinances or legal orders and the law exists in numerous pieces of legislation. The management of government and trust land is merely symbolic and the planning function is carried out by representatives of the central government with no real participation of local authorities. In such situation, the law promotes conflict and competition in the public domain instead of cooperation and coordination in planning and further weakens the planning capabilities of local authorities. There is a lack of relevance of the planning law to existing urban planning and management problems in Kenya. The communities feel that compliance to the provisions of planning law would not improve their standard of living. In the study area there is widespread lack of enforcement of planning law provisions, and disregard for planning for the environmentally sensitive areas and community recreation open spaces. In the planning process, private land owners and developers are left to operate without clear policies and guidelines. The results of the field study show that the present planning activities such as the subdivision of land and its development may ultimately lead to more degraded living conditions for those living in urban areas. The research has concluded that local planning has been ignored and planning by the central government departments and agencies does not take advantage of private initiatives of companies, cooperatives, joint public-private developments and private IV developments by individuals in the diverse freehold land development areas. This has led to a weak local economic base and inappropriate management of the urban environment. Planning law which exists in the form of ordinances and legal orders should be consolidated into a new Planning Act. A strategic model, a planning law model and an integrated model involving local levels are presented. They will serve to facilitate individuals and organizations in planning and management of urban land development in the study area and Kenya in general. Areas that have been discussed in the strategic model include widening the scope of policies and philosophy of planning, improving planning and management organization, local planning in the context of local authorities, coordination of private initiatives and unifying planning law into one Planning Act. The planning law model will become the framework for the legislation of the new Planning Act. More interaction between the local authorities and their communities, and clearly stated levels of policy making and jurisdictional planning are some of the areas to be improved in the model. The integrated model suggests organizational relationship and implications for land ownership and its development.