The impact of a development policy on Kilimani neighbourhood – city of Nairobi.

Abstract

Various studies have been done on impact of development policy on the evolution of urban land uses. However, few focus on development standards for neighbourhood development. It is due to the above stated shortcoming that this research is imperative in evolving a comprehensive body of knowledge for enhancing neighbourhood development as a spatial development process as well as urban environment process. Neighbourhood development phenomenon has over the years attracted scholars from a wide range of disciplines. Leading the team are the Urban Planners, Land Economists and Geographers and Sociologists. However, what these scholars have presented are segments of knowledge that indeed aids an evolution of a comprehensive body of knowledge that can be utilized by urban development stakeholders for the betterment of the neighbourhoods’ spatial and structural development. The rapid population growth and sustained economic growth in the city of Nairobi has accentuated the encroachment of commercial activities to the middle density residential zones adjacent to the Central Business District. Up to the early 1990s, Kilimani neighbourhood was fully residential with predominantly maisonettes and bungalows sitting on half acre plots and fully serviced with water, sewer, and electricity as well as tarmacked roads. Land use changes from 1990s albeit majority were (are still) illegal put pressure on the planning authorities to rezone the neighbourhood by revising the development densities and users, consequently marking the turning point to the neighbourhood’s development. This meant maximization of land use as opposed to the earlier residential maisonettes and bungalows sitting on half-acre plots. The unfolding scenario as described above has seriously strained the existing infrastructure services notably roads, water and sewer which are yet to be expanded despite the policy being applied in the development approvals. This work was prompted by search for a unifying and comprehensive policy framework Kilimani neighbourhood development taking cognisance that the current development policy framework for the neighbourhood has become obsolete, archaic, presenting relics of colonialism and therefore were geared towards preserving class segregation. The policy framework envisaged herein includes those regulations that define and appertain to land use development such as plot rations, plot coverage, building materials, building setbacks, user zones and land surrender among others.