Kenya: Master Plan Unleashed to Ease Gridlock in the City

By Staff writer

Kenya’s capital, Nairobi City Governor  Dr. Evans Kidero on Tuesday May 27 launched a development master plan aimed at decentralizing social and economic activities from the city centre.

Dr. Kidero said a majority of the 4 million residents concentrate their activities in the central business district (CBD), resulting in heavy population and traffic jams.

To address the problem that affects majority of African cities, Nairobi Integrated Urban Development Master plan (Niuplan) 2014-2018 proposes the adoption of a sub-centre system called bipolar corridor development on land use and settlement.

The draft proposes that nodes located on the interchange of the expected road network should be created in seven sub-centres that include Runda-Ruaka, Ruiru, Ruai, Karen and Lang’ata, which are sparsely populated.

“The plan is to strengthening the sub-centres to promote balanced development by narrowing the east-west gap, at the same time easing pressure on the CBD and dispersing social activities throughout the county,” he said.

Establishment of sub-centres is aimed at synchronizing urban and transport development.

The plan proposes an integrated road network and enhancement of the transport system in the CBD.

It identifies Kilimani as one of the estates where land use has changed from individual houses to construction of apartments.

“It was developed with technical assistance of Japan with support of the Kenyan government. The document is expected to transform the way things are done in the city and should be supported by residents,” Kidero said.

Urban planning has been the major challenge for post colonial Africa, with increased rural-urban migration and a fast growing rate of middle income households in need of private transport. These have caused governments to rethink their future development plans and strategies.

South Africa’s urban development system from with Kenya has heavily borrowed has proved to be implementable in the long run as it has seen the capital shift from Johannesburg to Pretoria, Nigeria’s Lagos to Abuja, at the same time setting up shuttle cities in other parts such as Cape Town, Durban, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Jos.