They say that in business, the customer is the king. But in Kenya’s booming property market, the opposite holds true, thanks to the biting housing shortage that has put potential buyers at the mercy of profit-minded developers.
But it now seems that the developers’ profit motive is doing more harm than good to not only the buyers’ pockets but to the public.
According to a report released last week by the Architectural Association of Kenya, developers are the greatest violators of development control laws and regulations, accounting for 57 per cent of all violations.
Local authority staff are blamed for 32 per cent of the rule breaking, while 11 per cent is attributed to built environment professionals like architects, planners, and engineers.
From field interviews conducted in 17 local authorities (in 14 counties) — Embu, Kitale, Kakamega, Garissa, Kisumu, Kipsigis, Nairobi, Kiambu, Kilifi, Mombasa, Nyeri, Thika, Marsabit, Moyale, Olkejuado, Mavoko, and Ruiru — the study established that the main reason for such violations is the developers’ quest to maximise profits.
“Developers exceed the density approved, resulting in higher built-up areas of a zone than planned for in the development plan,” says the report.
Some 29 per cent of the respondents cited high demand for construction space, especially for housing and commercial projects, as the cause of the violations.
Things have been made worse by the failure of local authorities to enforce by-laws, a fact that the report blames on political interference, inadequate technical capacity, partisanship, and hostile developers as well as the hostile public.
And if caught, the violators escape with only a slap on the wrist.
This is in spite of the heavy price the public sometimes pays as a result of the violations and the authorities’ failures.
The report, titled A Study on Development Control Frameworks in Kenya, name an unhealthy living environment (insecure, poorly-lit, poorly-ventilated, and poor solid waste disposal) and lack of children’s play areas as the leading effects of non-compliance with planning and building regulations and laws, at 20.4 per cent each.
These are followed closely by collapse of buildings at 18.5 per cent, frequent fire outbreaks (14.8 per cent), lack of parking space (13 per cent), built-up spaces not within minimum requirements (11.1 per cent), and lack of aesthetics (neighbourhood character as defined by zoning ordinances) at 1.9 per cent.
“When violation of development control occurs, amenities and interests of the larger community are sacrificed for the benefit of a few influential individuals,” says the report.
“The violations and the inability of local authorities to contain such violations impinge on residents’ basic rights such as mobility, privacy, access to water, security, and property value.”
In some cases, the violations are a result of delayed approval of development applications.
According to professionals in this field, most development application approvals take longer than the two months stipulated in the law.
Consequently, developments are taking place without approval “because developers find the plan approval process frustrating”.
Indeed, 40 per cent of the town planners interviewed said one of the development control challenges they are usually confronted with is developers working without approved plans.
Giving their side of the story, 60 per cent of the 412 developers interviewed said the greatest challenge they faced when applying for development permission was delays in obtaining approval from their respective local authorities.
Developers, the report says, have therefore resorted to practices such as “giving incentives” to local authority officials.
“Some of these practices enhance the culture of dishonesty.”
Thirty-seven of the developers said that a lot of time was wasted on following up development applications, so some of them do not wait for the approvals to be finalised.
In the long-run, approval delays impact negatively on development control.
Things have been made worse by the fact that most local authorities lack the capacity to adequately inspect and supervise projects.
The study found that 56 per cent of the developers carry on with their construction without the supervision of local authority staff.
“There is no organised system of tracking the developer in most local authorities and thus it is difficult to get data on ongoing projects and illegal developments.”
Another problem plaguing the country’s building and construction industry is the infiltration by incompetent or unqualified persons, sometimes referred to as “quacks”.
Each of the studied local authorities was found to have unqualified persons who have carried out more than 50 per cent of the development control within the area. This has resulted in sub-standard buildings.
These unqualified persons include retired local authority workers, sacked local authority workers, unregistered persons, and officers from related agencies overstepping their roles.
Persons who have undergone formal training but are yet to be registered by relevant registration boards dominate the list of unqualified persons.
There are also other unregistered persons who have gained experience by virtue of having practised in professional offices or related agencies for a long time, but who cannot be registered with the respective registration boards because they do not have university training, as required by professional statutes.
According to the report, these people perform many tasks, such as preparing building plans and sub-division schemes (it was established that 49 per cent of building plans were prepared by qualified architects and the rest by unregistered persons), evaluation of development applications, approving building plans using fake stamps, and site inspection.
During a workshop organised by the Architectural Association of Kenya in February, participants noted that as long as local authorities, professionals, and public institutions are unable to supervise and monitor every development within their jurisdictions, unqualified persons will be in the field.
Their presence will only be noticed when the effects of poor workmanship — collapsing buildings, fire outbreaks, lack of access roads, lack of children’s playing grounds — set in.
To counter this, the study recommends:
- Regular reviews of development plans.
- Enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with regulations.
- Review and consolidation of multiple laws and institutional frameworks.
- Public-private sector partnership.
- Strong role of technical offices and consultants.
- Constructive political influence.
- Use of competent staff.
- Adequate budgetary allocation.
- Involvement of all relevant parties.
- Periodic research, preferably after every five years, on development control activities.
Source: Daily Nation
Nothing new… really happening,please bring more solutions oriented topics other than problem surveys without way out solutions.