Nairobi Eastlands’ estates to be demolished

Mwembetayari

JF-Expert Member
Feb 21, 2012
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The Cabinet has approved plans to re-develop Nairobi's oldest estates. The Eastlands estates will all be demolished to give way for the construction of 60,000 new two and three-room units to accommodate the city's growing population. The move will modernise the infrastructure in this part of the city that has suffered neglect over the years.

Deputy director of city planning Rose Mwema, said the council and other government agencies own estates in the Eastlands. ‘City Council alone owns a housing area of about 500 hectares (1,200 acres) of land occupied by dilapidated housing. These are Kaloleni, Shauri Moyo, Ziwani, Mbotela, Makongeni, Gorofani/Bondeni, Starehe, Ofafa Kunguni, Jericho, Jerusalem and Maringo.

She said the estates that were built during the colonial era currently accommodate 9,557 households, adding that is an extreme extravagant use of prime land in strategic location. "The estates have potential capacity to accommodate over 60,000 households, a new secondary commercial and employment centre with employment capacity of over 20,000 and improved infrastructure,’ said Mwema yesterday.

She added that the project will involve Public Private Partnership. Kenya’s Vision 2030 for housing and urbanisation seeks to ensure ‘an adequately and decently housed nation in a sustainable environment’. Its medium term goal for 2012 is to increase the annual production of housing units nationally from the current 35,000 to over 200,000 per year. "Urban regeneration (urban renewal) is an instrument by which Eastlands declined areas can be re-planned and re-developed entirely to contribute to the achievements of Vision 2030 goals," she added.

The proposal was engineered by outgoing town clerk Philip Kisia, who said yesterday that those are some of the projects he will ensure are implemented if he is elected city governor in the coming election. "The proposed urban regeneration programme will be facilitated by government in terms of coordination and provision of framework and driven by private sector by way of injection of capital investment," he said.

He said that there are four major urban development concerns that also present great opportunities for transformation in the sector and offer solutions to some of the current development challenges. Kisia adds that the failure of the conventional municipal solid waste management system is causing negative impacts on the local economy, public health and the environment.

Ms Mwema added that the proposal also includes development of a new solid waste management system. "Conventional system of solid waste management has failed to cope with demands of the population for services. Presently, solid waste management stands as one of the major urban development challenges in the city," she adds. The city is currently estimated to be generating more than 2600 tones of solid waste out of which 53 per cent is collected for safe disposal.
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