EFFECTIVENESS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT CONTROL INSTRUMENTS IN KENYA: THE CASE OF ELDORET MUNICIPALITY

Abstract

Kenya is rapidly urbanizing with about 30% of her population living in urban areas and, by 2030 over 50% of the population will be urban. It is projected that Eldoret town will be home to 584,782 people by 2030.This rapid urbanization will therefore need to be guided by effective urban development control instruments and practices. The study focused on the effectiveness of urban development control instruments in Eldoret Municipality, and whose objectives were to; assess the spatial urban development trends; assess the effectiveness of urban development control tools and to identify the challenges associated with their application. Data was acquired through questionnaires which were administered to; 188 randomly selected households drawn from a list of developers who sought development planning permission and 22 Practicing Designers in Eldoret Municipality. Interview schedules were used to collect data from various Urban Development Control institutions. Focus Group Discussions, observation and mapping were also used as data collection methods. Data collected was analyzed using SPSS Version 20.The findings were presented using descriptive and inferential statistics. The spatial urban development control trends revealed that the built up area of Eldoret town has been expanding in a concentric pattern from a dot point in1908 to an area of; 11.2 Km2 in 1912, 25Km2 in 1928, 59Km2 in 1974 and 147.9 Km2 in1988. The spatial urban development trends reflected in submission of building plans for approval in Eldoret Municipality has been on the increase, from 600 building plans in 2005 to 3139 in 2015.Every year, new buildings coming up in Eldoret town occupy a plinth area of about 16.5 hectares resulting in urban environmental problems which include; increased surface runoff and flooding, loss of biodiversity and environmental pollution. The study established that the application of urban development control instruments in Eldoret Municipality is not effective as evidenced by 38% of the applicants who were granted development permission for approval of building plans, had completely violated the stipulated urban development control standards, while 62% of the respondents who had fully complied with the conditions stipulated in development permission, had equally contravened one other or more urban development control standards, by constructing illegal structures within their plots. Respondents rated performance of all urban development control institutions to be below 50% as there are delays, bureaucracy and overall poor service delivery. It was established that only 12(7%) of the buildings were inspected more than five times while 122 (70%), were inspected less than 5 times, giving an indication of the possibility of buildings collapsing in Eldoret town because of random and irregular building inspections. Analysis of land use suitability to inform urban development trends, and the formation of an independent Urban Development promotion Board to specifically handle urban development control issues are recommended.