Kenya’s building professionals are calling for a complete digitization of the urban planning and building approval processes within the County governments.
And they want the suggested digitization to be undertaken in a holistic manner where it captures all the key stakeholders including building and construction professionals as well as regulatory agencies such as National Construction Authority (NCA) and National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), among others.
Delegates attending a three-day Convention of the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) at Sarova Whitesands in Mombasa noted that the county governments not only needed to digitize their physical planning functions, but also to harness ICT in order to enhance efficient and effective service delivery, eliminate corruption and boost their revenue collection.
Veteran Urban Planning expert Mr David Gatimu said that digital explosion that has created a knowledge economy makes it necessary for the devolved units to harness ICT fully; more so to fulfill their mandates as set out in various legislations enacted since 2011.
“We have seen many dynamics which include emergence of new cities, skyrocketing urban population, huge youth population and progress in connectivity where 96 per cent of Kenyans are reported to have access to mobile phones. This makes e-governance in service delivery a standard requirement,” Mr Gatimu said in his presentation prior to the panel discussions.
In his presentation titled E-Governance and Digital Ecosystem in Urban Management, which was followed by panel discussions in the plenary, Mr Gatimu said housing function is one of the areas where counties and users of their services can benefit a lot through a holistic digital adaptation.
He explained that county governments could work with architects in developing standard building plans which the counties can sell to developers thereby cutting down the tedious approval processes.
Architects, he added, could also sell typical house plans just like artists sell music on iTunes through e-copyrighting on the proposed housing digital platform.
Another speaker Mr Cyrus Mbisi, an architect, said that a few days ago the Cabinet Secretary for ICT Mr Joe Mucheru said only one-third of the Kenya bandwidth is utilized, which represents an opportunity for the county governments and the built environment professionals to harness.
Makueni Governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana who addressed the delegates virtually said digitization of the development approval processes and planning had clearly helped in reducing corruption and enhancing efficiency in those countries that had started to digitize.
He said one of the departments that had high prevalence of graft was physical planning and paper documents were enormous and the processes bureaucratic.
He challenged architects and engineers to engage candidates who were seeking gubernatorial and presidential positions with a view to bringing reforms in the physical planning functions within the counties.
“In developed countries, building professionals are the ones who influence policy; where things are done wrongly in urban planning they are able to stand and say NO. As AAK fraternity, you can assert your say in the same way,” Prof Kibwana said.
He said Makueni County had integrated planning and development control functions with the land registry and the move had brought major difference by speeding up the process of approvals, minimizing corruption and increasing revenue collection.
