The National Environmental Management Authority officials overseeing the demolitions of buildings built on Riparian Land had revealed the next destination in the ongoing demolitions will be Taj Mall now known as Airgate Mall. The demolition was supposed to happen today but now it has been moved to Monday next week even though the deadline of a vacation notice issued by the multi-sectoral committee on unsafe structures lapsed today.
Nairobi regeneration task force operation’s manager, Chief Julius Wanjau on Thursday said that the establishment’s management had been given ample time to have complied with the vacation notice and time to bring down the once iconic mall had come. Other demolitions Wanjau said they did not demolish Air Gate mall today since the taskforce was yet to complete the flattening of the twin Southend mall located at the junction of Langata and Mbagathi Roads.
I don’t think Taj Mall will be demolished. @MikeSonko is a coward.Weston Hotel will still remain standing.Sudi told them to dare demolish it,they Chickened out.
— Mr. Kinuthia Pius. (@Belive_Kinuthia) August 31, 2018
“So far we have been able to flatten one side of the twin southend mall and by Saturday we should have entirely flattened everything. We do not want to do shoddy work so we would rather take even years if necessary but ensure that by the time we move on to the next building we have completed what we set out to achieve,” he said. The operations manager explained that the flattening of Southend mall had been a challenge due to the height of the buildings which required a calculated approach to bring down. “Let us first deal with the building at hand then from Monday move on to the next one. The demolition of Airgate could even take place on Thursday but we will communicate on the same,” Wanjau said.
Ramesh Gorasia the managing director of Airgate Mall, had dared the Government to demolish the property in Embakasi, Nairobi. Mr Gorasia spoke after receiving an unstamped notice of demolition asking him bring down the building by August 30 or have it demolished at his cost.