Time for National Construction Authority to justify its existence

It is unfortunate that more than 20 people have lost their lives following the collapse of a building in Huruma, Nairobi. Everyone appears keen to take on the developer of the building. Yes, buildings do not just decide to fall; they crumble because people cut corners and fail to employ the right professionals. But this is just but one side of the story.

This disaster should be viewed from a bigger prism. It is evident that our society is fast crumbling under the weight of its contradictions. We have allowed greed to outgrow common sense and need for self-preservation. We are quick to castigate those who steal public resources, but go on to envy those who do.

Once upon a time, Nairobi had a system of wetlands that soaked in much of the rainwater and made it habitable. The wetlands were not accidents of nature; they had a purpose. Which is why the colonial government preserved most of them in the 1948 masterplan for a colonial capital.

However, nearly all of them have been gobbled up by developments. River valleys are inhabited by hundreds of thousands who have been pushed away from formal housing by market forces.

We agreed to do away with extra-thin plastic, but a group of plastic manufacturers ensured that this did not happen. Now the ghastly plastic waste blocks every natural or man-made drain.

The city authorities cannot escape the blame. It is unbelievable that the colonial capital masterplan has been the only one that was ever implemented in Nairobi.

It is shameful that for 68 years, we have not seen the need to comprehensively re-organise the most important city in East and Central Africa. Yes, we made a half-hearted attempt in 1973 when we came up with the Nairobi metropolitan growth strategy, but did nothing to implement it.

To this half-hearted efforts one can add the Nairobi integrated urban development masterplan 2014-2030.

Building professionals have been quick to pass the blame. Rather than continue to blame the developers, the question architects, quantitative surveyors, physical planners need to ask is why some developers do not consult them. Hiring an architect alone costs a developer six per cent of the cost of putting up a building. Probably we should ask the professionals, whose education the society paid for, why they charge such exorbitant fees.

Further, most of our laws are unnecessarily punitive. The National Construction Authority law of 2011 promised to streamline, overhaul, and regulate construction.

It was made legal for the National Construction Authority to impose a levy on contractors of Sh25,000 for a contract worth Sh5 million and 0.5 per cent on every contract that exceeds Sh5 million. This in addition to a multiplicity of charges to the National Environment Management Authority, the Lands Ministry, the county government, the Kenya Revenue Authority, and the national government. Not counting the unofficial but necessary bribes.

With climate change raging, we have not seen the last of the extreme weather events. Floods will continue to ravage the city. To comprehensively address this, we must demand that the county government urgently maps out the city’s natural drainage, all the wetlands that have been built on, as well as the areas prone to flooding. The city and national governments must cooperate to kick out all the private developers who have built on these areas.

The city government must urgently commission the preparation of a drainage master plan and implement it.

The two levels of government should stop taking us for fools. The government that now wants to lock up rogue developers has been readily collecting taxes rates and other charges from the developer. You cannot claim that a process is illegal when you legally benefit from it. The National Construction Authority should justify its existence. What really does it do?

We should demand action now or resign ourselves to waiting for the next disaster.

Mr Mbaria is a freelance journalist. [email protected]