Nairobi City Council to Invest Sh5 bn in Eastleigh Infrastru

[IRONm@N]

Nairobi – (HOL) - The Eastleigh Business District Association (EBDA) met with representatives from the Nairobi City council Thursday at the Nomad Palace in Eastleigh to discuss how they can share the tax revenue collected in Eastleigh.

The EBDA is an organization that looks after the commercial interests of Eastleigh business – from small street vendors to the larger hotels, shops and restaurants that seem to be sprouting up over Eastleigh overnight. They maintain that there is a stark contrast between the amount of tax revenue collected from Eastleigh business and the amount of municipal services they receive in return.

Mohamed Mohamud Gutale, the organizing secretary of the EBDA voiced his concerns to Hiiraan Online. “There is a lack of investment on the city’s part in terms of infrastructure. Eastleigh has a colonial sewage system that was built in 1936 with little or no repairs or innovations.” He added that “The garbage is littered on the streets, the roads cannot handle the influx of vehicles and heavy trucks, and to make matters worse we don’t have street lights.”

The meeting was attended by several officials from the City council including the town clerk, city councilors, environmental officers and city engineers; some of whom have never even been to Eastleigh before this meeting.

The EBDA has told us that they have made a tentative agreement with the city council and that it promises to look into their grievances. They have said that they’ve been told to expect immediate results as early as 4 months from now and that there will be a Sh5 bn investment in Eastleigh’s infrastructure.

The lack of municipal oversight and involvement has led to the building of several poorly planned or outright illegal buildings. The city council explained that many of the buildings in Eastleigh go against zoning laws and have not been approved by city planners. They have promised to further investigate this issue and if warranted those buildings could potentially be demolished.

In June of last year, a Kenyan High Court ruled that the City Council is barred from collecting taxes from over 3000 traders in Eastleigh for not offering municipal services.

Eastleigh is an eastern suburb of Nairobi that is predominantly inhabited by Somali immigrants; it has been affectionately dubbed as “Little Mogadishu”. Economic pundits estimate that the business generated in Eastleigh runs into the billions of shillings.

http://www.hiiraan.com/news2/2011/Mar/n ... cture.aspx

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Finally! I have been advocating for years for islii business owners to come together and fix their bad infrastructure, and they finally so the light.

[The_Patriot]

good step my God I used to hate visiting it. It was very stinking and looked like a garbage site with shopping complexes.

[Somalian_Boqor]

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[BlackVelvet]

The lack of municipal oversight and involvement has led to the building of several poorly planned or outright illegal buildings. The city council explained that many of the buildings in Eastleigh go against zoning laws and have not been approved by city planners. They have promised to further investigate this issue and if warranted those buildings could potentially be demolished.

In June of last year, a Kenyan High Court ruled that the City Council is barred from collecting taxes from over 3000 traders in Eastleigh for not offering municipal services.

Interesting, I wonder which buildings those are.

[Basra-]

It will NOT happen. Eastleigh is a filth place and it should remain at such.c

[juzme123]

What if they moved the Moi Air Base?


Occupying an expansive area next to Eastleigh, not far from Nairobi’s city centre, is the Moi Air Base.

But unlike the bustling Jomo Kenyatta International or Wilson airports, few planes can be seen taking off from this giant military installation.

Indeed, aside from hosting the presidential jet, the Moi Air Base rarely seems to serve as an airport at all. About 15 airplanes are kept there, Mr Archer says, many of which should be in a museum rather than an airstrip.

Squatters, who have now moved to the fringes of the base, appear to be getting the most benefit from this precious urban space. The time has come, Mr Archer says, to give the area an extreme green makeover.

A vast and underused area located within striking distance of downtown Nairobi, the Moi Air Base is currently doing little more than retarding the growth of the Eastleigh area.

Transforming the sprawling base into a park and recreation area, however, would give the impetus needed to drive a new cycle of urban development in the area.

Eastleigh, the largest settlement of Somalis outside Somalia, bustles day and night with commerce and construction.

Its growth is limited, however, by a restriction on the maximum allowed height of buildings. Because of the proximity to the airfield, no building taller than four stories is allowed.

“The point is that because these prehistoric aircraft still occasionally land and take off here, all of this area of Eastleigh is confined to two and three storey buildings,” he said. “Get rid of the aircraft and all of this can be 10, 15, 20 storey highrises.”

The first order of business would be to tear up the airstrip itself, and then recycle the asphalt and use it to build a wall around the entire perimeter to prevent unlawful squatting.

Then, the cavernous aircraft hangars on the base could be converted to new uses as public centres for recreation, education, and artistic and cultural exchange.