Confusion as Government Agencies Disagree on Demolitions

Last week, the country was treated to a spectacle when the Government moved to demolish multi-billion-shilling storey buildings believed to have been built on wetlands.

Bulldozers from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure rolled towards the buildings, tearing them from “limb to toe” in an unprecedented move.

From malls in Lang’ata to high-end coffee shops in Kileleswa to religious sanctuaries, including parts of the Oshwal Centre, went down in a pitiable rabble.

Everyone kept asking: who will be next?

According to a task force appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta to clean and reclaim Nairobi River, among other rivers dubbed the Nairobi Regeneration Team, more than 4,000 building will be pulled down before the operation comes to an end.

According to the National Buildings Inspectorate and the multi-sectoral committee on unsafe structures, more than 3,000 buildings have been marked as unsafe for occupation and will be pulled down.

The figures are in total contrast with statistics from the National Construction Authority (NCA), the State agency mandated to inspect, approve and audit all construction activities in the country. NCA Executive Director Morris Achieng last week released the results of an audit that his agency carried two years ago.

In the audit, NCA claimed that it inspected 5,000 buildings. Out of the 5,000 buildings, 800 were found to be unsafe. However, out of the 800, 149 were found to have partially complied with the NCA approval processes and only needed some structural adjustments, not total demolition.

But the remaining 651 were found to have completely ignored the approval processes and were declared to be unsafe, with the only option being to demolish them.

“You will find out that out of 10 buildings that we surveyed in a county like Nairobi, four are unsafe and must be demolished,” Mr Aketch said while releasing the results of the audit.

Apart from NCA, the other State bodies bandying different figures of the buildings to be demolished include the National Environmental Management Authority, The Water Services Regulatory Board and the Buildings Inspectorate. There is yet to be an agreement from these agencies on the exact number of buildings that should be demolished.

No Demolitions this week
No new buildings will be demolished in Nairobi this week by the Nairobi River Regeneration task force. The team on Monday said it will now concentrate on flattening structures that were partially brought down last week.

They plan to complete the demolition of Oshwal Centre, Ukay Centre and Southend Mall. The task force’s operations manager Julius Wanjau yesterday said the partially destroyed buildings posed a danger to residents.

Mr Wanjau also said they have shelved their plan to use explosives to flatten the structures as this would affect neighboring buildings.

“After consulting the Ministry of Mining, we came to the conclusion that the use of explosives would be detrimental to other surrounding buildings. We would rather take our time and complete the demolitions,” he said.

The demolitions, aimed at reclaiming Nairobi River, began last week and are expected to continue for the next two months.


Last week, Oshwal Centre’s perimeter wall was brought down and part of its premises located on riparian land were scheduled to be destroyed yesterday. Wanjau, however, said the task force had given Oshwal’s management four more days to destroy the property.

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