Professionals Expose Officials Still Approving Nairobi's Illegal Buildings

Nairobi's built-environment professionals have told the county assembly that the city's building-approval desk is being manipulated, with officials accused of tampering with the online portal to push applicants into a manual process where approval depends on payments. Brenda Nyawara, vice-president of the Architectural Association of Kenya, told the Urban Planning and Housing committee that county officials tamper with the online approval portal on purpose, a claim backed by the Institution of Engineers of Kenya and the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya.

Committee chair Geoffrey Majiwa, the Baba Dogo MCA, asked the executive to prioritise the digital system, saying it would curb interference by powerful individuals. IEK president Shammah Kiteme told MCAs that a system without a glitch has no reason to need a cash meeting to make a signed file reappear. Nyawara said Nairobi cannot keep burying people and then ask afterwards who signed the drawing, noting that four people have died in Nairobi building collapses this year, in cases the professionals say were later found to have been approved illegally.

The first name raised was Patrick Analo Akivaga, Chief Officer for Urban Development and Planning, who chaired the Urban Planning Technical Committee and is described as a long-time ally of Governor Johnson Sakaja. On June 4, EACC detectives searched his Syokimau home and, by the account in the record, counted Sh51.3 million in cash and 113,000 US dollars, about Sh65.3 million together, and took title deeds, logbooks and county development approval plans. The commission is separately tracing more than Sh170 million that moved into his accounts through cash and M-Pesa over six financial years. Sakaja suspended him the next day. Analo faces three counts of abuse of office tied to the approval of Manzil Towers in South C, which collapsed on January 2, killing two security guards. He is presumed innocent and has not been convicted.

Fredrick Ondari Ochanda, then Assistant Director for Development Control, told MCAs in late 2023 that he had personally approved close to 600 applications under a delegation he said came from the Governor's office. EACC raided his homes in Ngong and Suneka and his City Hall office in May 2024 over unexplained wealth, and he was released without charge. Court reports now say he and Analo are jointly accused, as members of the planning committee, of arbitrarily approving Manzil Towers on the plot at LR 209/5909/10.

The records also show a striking concentration of work. Close to one in every four development applications that reached Nairobi's planning committee over two years was handled by only ten architectural practices, with about 882 of 3,856 registrations, roughly 23 percent of the dataset, sitting with just ten names out of a professional register that runs into the thousands. The article notes that high concentration alone does not prove wrongdoing. On September 3, the committee ordered the executive to suspend the Development Control Policy, citing cartels and an enforcement unit that says it has no money, vehicles or staff.