This archive report was first published on 24 October 2019.
Published on October 24, 2019, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has turned the heat on the Kenya Institute of Planners (KIP), accusing its members of causing more deaths than terrorists in the city.
According to Sonko, between June 2014 and September 30, 2019, a total of 110 Kenyans lost their lives and scores were injured in 11 tragedies involving collapsed buildings in Nairobi. This number, he claimed, is higher than the 21 deaths resulting from terrorist attacks in the capital city during the same period.
The governor pointed out that the deaths, injuries, and destruction of properties were a result of the approvals issued to substandard buildings and other structures by KIP members working at the Urban Planning Department. He specifically mentioned suspended Urban Planning chief officer Justus Kathenge, a member of KIP, who had risen from a director of Urban Planning in 2014.
Mr Sonko added that Mr Kathenge was implicated in a 2017 report of the Ombudsman in the Huruma tragedy where 52 people died for negligence and failure to enforce compliance.
However, KIP chairman Dr Lawrence Esho had stated that undue political pressure on officials at the planning department and frequent interference with an electronic platform the county had transitioned to in processing of development applications had hampered the seamless process of receiving and processing of the same subsequently rendering inefficient, the entire planning and development control system.
