The Nairobi County Government is making plans that will see the County’s Eastlands area undergo a major urban renewal. This will be part of the larger Nairobi Upgrade Master Plan.
The county government has entered into a partnership deal with the World Bank, which will see development of guidelines to transform Eastlands into a suburb with an urban approach. The new partnership is under the Nairobi Metropolitan Services Improvement Programme, where old houses owned by the county government will be demolished to allow for construction of new low cost high-rise apartments.
The total cost of the Nairobi Upgrade Master Plan project has been set at US$ 957m.
The county government has 22 public estates under their care, with 2000 acres of prime land spread across the county. They include housing units in Maringo, Pumwani, Jericho, Ofafa, Embakasi, Kaloleni, Ziwani, and Mbotela amongst others. Many of these houses are currently occupied by third generation tenants who inherited the houses from their parents who are retired public servants. The original owners of these homes have either relocated to their country side homes, rented the houses or dead.
This will prove to be a challenge for the county government when it comes to compensating those to be affected by the upgrade program, and identifying legitimate home owners when time comes to allocate the new homes to original tenants.
The Nairobi Governor Dr. Evans Kidero, however, has assured residents of these estates that no legal tenant will be displaced, and that they will occupy the new units once construction is complete.
The US$ 957m Nairobi Upgrade Master Plan project will see some of the space made available after demolition, and the city turned into a business hub in a public-private partnership agreement. Some of the buildings expected to come up include malls, residential apartments and office blocks.
