Members of the Planning Committee at the Nairobi City County Assembled have called for immediate suspension of ongoing regeneration activities along the Nairobi River corridor.
The MCAs on Wednesday made the decision following a petition by Kangemi and larger Dagoretti land owners who fear losing property worth millions of shillings without any clear plan for compensation.
Minority Leader Anthony Kiragu who temporarily chaired committee sittings attended by the land owners called on the County Government to revoke its public notice declaring the Nairobi River Corridor a Special Planning area.
In their petition to the assembly,the land owners had declared the public notice issued on 6th March 2025 as illegal and a threat to their livelihood.
The notice issued by the County Executive Committee Member for Built Environment and Urban Planning Patrick Mbogo was to pave way for development of over 10,000 Social and Affordable Housing projects along the river corridor.
According to Kiragu,the notice is illegal because no public participation was carried out.
” We are calling on the County Executive Committee Member in charge of planning to immediately revoke the notice until that time when the due process has been followed and concerns from the residents have been considered”
The committee was shocked to hear from the county officials that no spacial plan for the development has been put in place yet the multi-agency team is already implementing the regeneration plan.
In Dagoretti and Kangemi, officers from the County Government ,Water Resources Management Authority(WARMA) with protection from Kenya Defence Forces immediately begun the process of placing beacons extending the riparian buffer zone to 60 meters from the River Bank.
The land owners argue that this a gross deviation from the legally established threshold.
” The environment Management and Coordination Regulations,2009, enacted under the Environmental Management and Coordination Act, typically define riparian land as 6 meters from the highest water mark for rivers,”
The land owners claim they have genuine title deeds and are now decrying violation of property and due process in land acquisition.
” Our right to property is protected under article 40 of the constitution,” Ambassador Major Retired Patrick Ngobe said.
The Nairobi Regeneration project is being coordinated by the Nairobi Rivers Commission which is chaired by former Starehe Member of Parliament Margaret Wanjiru.
