Laws should be updated to put Kenya at par with other states

That Kenya is rapidly urbanising is indisputable. In fact, it is considered an emerging middle-income country and could be on the verge of a major social and economic transformation. A growing percentage of its population is moving to urban areas, and the country has adopted a devolved system of government.

These factors should be enough to provide optimism for the country’s growth. However, they are not, according to the Kenya Urbanisation Review Report released by the World Bank in February this year. 

This is because the way a country manages urbanisation and devolution determine whether it can maximise the benefits of its transition to a middle-income country.

The report says that in 2014, Kenya had a gross national income (GNI) per capita of  Sh129,011, placing it in the ranks of lower middle-income countries. Remarkably, Kenya’s Vision 2030 national development programme seeks to propel the country to the rank of an upper middle-income country by that year.  Achieving this status would mean improved living standards for all Kenyans.

On average, urban dwellers in upper middle-income countries have 92 per cent access to electricity, 97 per cent access to improved water supplies, and 87 per cent access to improved sanitation. Kenya’s current levels of about 50 per cent access to electricity, 60 per cent access to improved water sources, and only 30 per cent access to improved sanitation in urban areas fall far short of these figures. 

“Though Kenya is urbanising rapidly, it is still under-urbanised,” the report says.

 “Based on the correlation between the GDP per capita and urbanisation for several countries, about 40 per cent of Kenyans, given their current gross domestic product (GDP) of $1,200 (Sh120,000), should be living in urban areas, against the actual current figure of 27 per cent. On this measure, Kenya is an underperformer on urbanisation, with a rate similar to Mozambique, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe, whose per capita incomes are far lower,” the report adds. 

HOUSING

Housing is a major aspect in the success of urbanisation. But as Kenya urbanises, formal housing supply is not keeping pace with the growth, so informal housing is filling the gap. The World Bank review classifies roughly 27 per cent of Kenya’s population as urban, areas that are projected to grow at a rate of 4.4 per cent annually, compared with the national rate of 2.7 per cent.

Projections in 2010 showed that the annual housing requirement that year was estimated at around 82,000 in urban areas, accounting for 60 per cent of the total, and that the figure would rise to over 280,000 units by 2050, by which time all of the population growth and quantitative housing requirements would be in urban areas, the report says.

As most housing is provided by the formal or informal private sector, housing policy needs to be responsive to the conditions and modes of operation in the sector at large.

“Physical planning is an important aspect for any building code in regulating and enhancing the physical look and aesthetics of any locality. The current building code has many flaws and has not been able to control the planning of the structures. This could be attributed to the fact that the laws are outmoded, there is lack of enforcement of the regulations, lack of qualified physical planners, corruption and negligence by the local authority,” says  Mr  Michael Otechi, an architect and member of the governing council of the Global Forum of the International Code Council. 

Negligence by the local authorities has contributed to the mushrooming of slums in almost all towns in the country. Investigations into the  collapse of buildings that have cost tens of lives and material losses running into millions of shillings invariably show that they resulted from negligence by local authorities in not condemning aged structures, inadequate preparedness, and lack of enforcement of building safety, under-designed concrete columns and poor building processes and curing methods. The  processes are rushed, and there are no clear passages and exits in case of fire or other emergencies, says Mr Otechi.

The absence of a competent authority to implement and certify building requirements might be another reason behind all the problems in the construction industry, Mr Otechi adds. 

BUILDING CODE

In 2012, the then coalition government, through the Ministry of Housing, advocated for a total overhaul of the building regulations by redrafting the Kenya Building Code to make it a performance-based and dynamic code, similar to those used in the developed world. In the process, a  national planning authority Bill was proposed.

A set of laws approved by the Cabinet, and which included the Built Environment Bill 2012, was meant to help bring order and sanity in the construction industry by establishing minimum standards and practices.

The Building Authority of Kenya was meant to control, manage and enforce laws by establishing building standards for maintenance, registration and certification.

The authority was also to play an oversight role in both the national and county governments. Meanwhile, the National Building Regulations 2012 were meant to review the outmoded Kenya Building Code, while the National Building Maintenance Policy 2012 was to ensure regular and consistent maintenance of buildings throughout their lifespan. However, the building code that is still in use is the Ministry of Local Government 1969 Kenya Building Code.

There have been concerted efforts  by the Kenya government, the  private sector and stakeholders  towards the adoption of alternative building technologies (ABT) in the built environment. ABTs would improve the lives of Kenyans in the face of rapid urbanisation, and ultimately, physical planning.

With rapid urbanisation, the adoption of new and alternative building technologies would go along way in improving the lives of Kenyans.

However, according to a research titled Flaws in the Current Building Code and code- making Process in Kenya by Kabando K. Erastus of the Nyeri National Polytechnic and Pu Wuchuan from Wuhan University of Technology in China, the introduction of new building materials has been difficult, especially because coming up with well-designed structures based on the current Ministry of Local Government, 1969 Building Code that has never been reviewed is difficult. The new alternative building technology materials are not factored in the decades-old code.

The code stipulates that local governments responsible for its implementation should not allow the use of second-hand materials  in any construction work. 

But Mr Kabando and Mr Pu point out that to determine whether any material is  second-hand, it should first be tested to find out whether it is truly no longer usable.

The basis for rejecting the use of the materials should not rely solely on the code because other bodies concerned with material specification should be involved, the researchers argue.

The reduction, reuse and recycling of materials has been greatly emphasised in nearly all areas, including in construction. The reuse of materials salvaged from demolished buildings could become part of the cost reduction in  projects, as long as the materials  meets the required standards.

However, such standards were not factored in the 1969 laws. 

QUALITY

The quality of the materials used in any building  is very important, and a flaw in even just one of them  could have disastrous consequences, Kabando and Pu say.  Yet materials that meet the the standards are specified in the 1969 building code are either expensive, or imported from Europe, and therefore,  conform to conditions experienced in Europe, such as snow.

Currently the marked is flooded with materials from China. In addition, the Chinese and other Asian countries have won many of the large construction contracts, and are, not surprisingly, importing most of the required materials from Arab and Asian countries.

This has made it even easier for substandard materials that are not appropriate for local conditions to enter the country. 

Yet ideally, Kenya should have its own specifications on the  quality of materials to be imported or manufactured since  trade patterns are bound to change with time. However, the current laws do not provide for such specifications.

What’s more, to achieve the minimum housing requirements, the current building code specifies that the structure shall be built from masonry, natural stone, and should have of at least two bedrooms, each measuring a minimum of 7 metres square, with a separate kitchen and flue (a specially designed pipe connected to a heating appliance that enables it to release its combustion products into the air) ventilation. But these specifications are obviously beyond the means of the poor and many lower middle-income families.

The building code also clearly specifies the amount of space that should be left between a building and a street front, as well as the distance between it and other buildings. This was meant to ensure proper planning in the construction of structures along streets. But this regulation has been largely flouted with impunity.

The requirement also limits how creative architects can use such spaces.

 Then, the international systems of units (SI units) in construction that were adopted in the Adoptive By-laws of 1969 are  in imperial units, which express distance in feet and inches and weight in pounds. Yet Kenya adopted the metric system, which uses metres for length and kilogrammes for weight.

This can lead to serious confusion in calculation. According to clause 124 of the 1969 building code, “Unless the council otherwise agrees, a person proposing to erect a building of a type described in by-law 127 of these by-laws shall employ for the purpose of the architectural design thereof a registered architect, and for the purpose of the structural design a structural designer, and shall retain the services of such architect or structural designer for the purpose of supervising the erection of such building.”

 This might be one of the reasons that has led to the proliferation of “quacks” and unregistered contractors since the council has the sole authority to approve the applications of the various parties and activities concerned with construction, the researchers note. 

Mr Otechi says that building codes and standards in any country should meet certain specific standards, strike a balance between explicit and implicit requirements, have a  legal framework and capacity, enhance the safety of, and secure property, assist the authority and agencies concerned in implementing it, bring about uniformity in the design and analysis of structures and reduce the risks and uncertainties involved in building.

However, things look likely to change in the not-too-distant future. Perhaps it is following the belated realisation that the 1969 Building Code had outlived its usefulness that the government recently approved the discarding of the British Standards in favour of the more widely used European ones. The standards are expected to enhance safety in the sector, whose name has been tainted in the recent past thanks to collapsing buildings.

But it will be a while before they become applicable since professionals in the construction industry will have to undergo retraining which, according to the Kenya Bureau of Standards Managing Director, Mr Charles Ongwae, will take five years.