This archive report was first published on 13 July 2020.
The Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) Director Major General Mohammed Badi has announced the start of work on the Nairobi Railway City Project, a Sh28 billion multi-modal urban development.
The project, which will take 20 years to complete, will be led by the newly formed NMS and the Railway City Development Authority (RCDA).
According to Major General Badi, the formation of an implementation committee for the RCDA is currently underway, following a directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta in March for NMS to work closely with relevant institutions to establish the Authority and identify anchor projects and investors for the project.
Major General Badi noted that a gazette notice establishing the Railway City Development Authority was published on 13th May 2020 as Legal Notice No. 88 of 2020.
The iconic project, which is part of the Nairobi Integrated Urban Development Plan first announced in 2010, will be implemented on a 425-acre piece of land stretching from Haile Selassie Avenue, Uhuru Highway, Bunyala Road, Commercial Street and Landhies Road.
The plan includes building of a new railway station that allows for the integration of Nairobi Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and other public transport modes as well as other commercial developments including skyscrapers, residential flats, a cultural centre and a museum.
However, social media critics have termed the proposal a 'highly sanitized land grab' where public land and funds will be moved to private hands.
Some of the recent and not so recent failures in projects make it a hard case for the RCDA to sell, for example the stalled Konza Technocity, BRT etc.
Also, the demolitions carried out in Kariobangi, in the dead of the night, during the time of Covid-19 pandemic makes it hard for most people to buy into the idea of 'an iconic nerve centre for the city's multi-modal transport system with a world class new central station incorporating mixed use commercial developments, housing and inter-modal facilities'.
