NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 8 – The government on Wednesday said it was working on by-laws to introduce clear markings of buildings and streets in Nairobi by October this year.
Speaking during a launch of a Nairobi Facelift Programme, Government Spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua said City Hall and the Nairobi Metropolitan Ministry were already working on a strategy of numbering buildings within the city and residential areas.
“New laws will be gazetted to ensure building owners and home owners comply to this city planning initiative,” Dr Mutua said.
He said it was hard for visitors in Nairobi to find their way since streets and buildings, apart from description and names did not have numbers for easier identification.
Dr Mutua said the facelift programme involved beautification, security, street address system and proper road maintenance which will include a signage system.
He said the initiative will also involve installation of CCTV on buildings, streets including residential areas to help arrest the increasing criminal activities.
In a move to minimise Nairobi’s unending traffic jams and road accidents the Spokesman said proper road marking and constant road repairs will be covered in the programme launched on Wednesday.
He said there will be opening for companies to advertise in exchange of marking bumps.
“Nairobi has 370 bumps majority of which are unmarked, drivers only get to know about them after crushing their tongues between their teeth upon hitting bumps especially at night,” he said.
On beautification of the City Nairobi Town Clerk Philip Kisia explained why the council was uprooting plants along the city streets.
He said long, bushy trees were a threat to security, saying they had been planted without proper planning. Mr Kisia said they were blocking view of the CCTV cameras due to lack of a clear view of the happenings along the streets.
“They were causing insecurity, we are correcting the wrong that was done before, we are beautifying and making the town more secure,” he said.
Mr Kisia also said many street constructions were going on within the city to make them one way instead of having parallel lanes that were causing more confusion.
He also said the plan was intended to increase traffic and human speed since vehicles will be moving only in one direction.
The joint project also involved the Nairobi Metropolitan, Lands, Internal Security and Roads Ministries.
Dr Mutua said there was no any special allocation since resources were already there including labour derived from the Kazi Kwa Vijana Programme.
The programme will later be rolled out to the rest of major towns and roads in the country.
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