Slightly over two decades ago, most residential fences in middle class areas of Nairobi consisted of natural trees like cypress or key-apple. For a city that doesn’t drain well, this manner of fencing greatly benefited it during the wet season, providing adequate paths for rainwater to flow towards the many small rivers that pass through […]
Nairobi: Mixed Use Zones are Redefining the City
Both Homer Hoyt’s Sector Theory of Urban Development and Ernest Burgess’ Concentric Zone Theory highlight how cities grow outward from a core district (the Central Business District) towards the periphery with distinct land use zones. Without good land use management, cities run the risk of growing too far out, a concept known as urban sprawl. Sprawl […]
Nairobi, Kenya: No BRT due to Poor Planning?
Kenyas Cabinet Secretary (Minister) for Transport recently stated that a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) would not be possible in the City of Nairobi. In his statement, according to press reports, he mentioned that the city lacked space for a BRTdue to poor planning and added that to ease congestion, a commuter rail and expanded roads would […]
Nairobi’s Long Rains: A failure in Urban Resilience?
Nairobi’s Long Rains season traditionally brings several urban challenges. A year ago, during the same season, a school bus was trapped in flooded waters and pupils had to wait for over 10 hours to be rescued. Unconfirmed reports indicate that on the same day and along the same road, one motorist died while trapped in […]
Nairobi: How can buses help decongest?
There has been lots of talk over the last few years about ‘decongesting’ the city of Nairobi. Unfortunately most of it has been done on paper with the few practical attempts towards ‘decongesting’ proving to be either short term or complete failures. Nearly all of these proposals have been dubbed as ‘Quick wins’ focusing on diverting […]
Public vs Private Urban Housing, what direction for Nairobi, Kenya?
The recent drive towards an open market economy has led to the private sector providing various services that were traditionally under the mandate of the state or municipality. Critics, however, view this development as an opportunity for well-connected individuals to control essential services and reap profitable returns. In Nairobi, Kenya, some of the key areas […]
Aerial Cable Transit: Urban Gondolas for African Cities?
Recent decades have experienced a revolution in urban transportation with the ensuing development of “alternative” means of modern urban transport. Harvard professor Clayton Christensen calls these alternatives “disruptive technology,” which uses simple innovations that differ from the traditional modes of urban mass transit like regular bus services, light rail trains and Metro Rail. South American countries […]
How Sustainable are the emerging Private Cities around Nairobi, Kenya?
Years back Ebenezer Howard proposed a ‘Garden City’ in his famous text “Garden Cities of Tomorrow. The world famous urbanist envisioned self-reliant and independent cities that are spacious and organized; have limited/controlled populace and unified land ownership. Le Corbusier later analyzed the challenges faced by increased urbanization in Europe and came up with his version […]
Nairobis Tom Mboya Street: User Friendly or Not?
City streets play a major function in urban life and economy. Dynamic Streets, like those within Central Business District areas that serve multiple users can at times be said to be the life of a city. Nairobi Tom Mboya Street is a relevant example of this type of multi user street . Located at the […]
Countering the Increasing Energy Consumption in Growing Cities
Current global trends indicate that over 50% of the world’s human population lives in urban areas. Although the figure for the African continent is lower at 40%; its growth rate of 3.6 % is double the worlds average and the highest globally. Urban centres have greater requirements for the generation, distribution and consumption of energy […]
