Variations in Urban Land Delivery Models and Their Implication on the Provision of Infrastructure: a Case of Kitengela, Kajiado County, Kenya

Abstract

Urban areas emerge from various models in which land is availed. This study is driven by interest that arises from the fact that various studies and literature shows that pre-planned land delivery models incorporate social and physical infrastructure provision. On the other hand, studies done in Kitengela indicate deficiencies in the provision of social and physical infrastructure despite the town's conception being associated with planning (the first plan of Kitengela prepared in 1975). On this premise, curiosity arises on the basis that if planning led the land delivery for the development of Kitengela then infrastructure should be adequately in place. Therefore, the study seeks to answer the question, “How do the various urban land delivery models impact the provision of social and physical infrastructure?” The study hypothesis is that “deficiency in access to public social and physical infrastructure in an urban area could mean that the predominant urban land delivery model is unplanned (laissez-faire or market-driven).” Every day governments and authorities initiate projects to augment infrastructure in urban areas. However, the deficiency in infrastructure persists with the growth of urban areas. This study, therefore, tries to bridge the knowledge gap on optimization of infrastructure in urban areas as far as the land delivery models are concerned. This study adopts comparative analysis with qualitative and quantitative approaches with Chi square as a statistical test to test the study hypothesis. The key finding leads to the rejection of the study hypothesis to prove that deficiency in social and physical infrastructure in an urban area could mean that the predominant urban land delivery model is unplanned (laissez-faire or market-driven). The implication of this finding shows that if urban land delivery model is not preplanned then there are zero chances of optimizing provision of social and physical infrastructure in urban areas.