Urban Planning - What's that?
Let me paint a scenario for you.
Time is money!
Two middle- income residents, Jabali and Neema, live within a 15 km radius from the Nairobi CBD. Jabali lives along Mombasa Road, say Imara Daima's Sunrise Park apartments while Neema lives at Viraj apartments, Yaya Centre. Both Kenyans have an appointment with a potential client at Java Mama Ngina at 10:00am so they leave their houses at 9:00 am.
Jabali walks to the train station near his estate which takes him approximately 5 minutes. He waits for the train which arrives on time at 9:15 am. The train takes about 25 minutes to reach the CBD which is 9:40am. He takes a moderately paced walk to the restaurant which takes him about 10 minutes. He arrives 10 minutes early to his appointment giving him ample time to calm his nerves, freshen up and wait for his client.
Neema also takes about 5 minutes to walk from her apartment to the bus stage. She boards a KBS bus at 9:05 am. There is traffic along Argwings Kodhek road due to the bottle neck effect of the two way street connecting major points of the city. It takes her about 30 mins to get to the round about at Silver Springs hotel and the bus joins Valley Road at 9:35am. The traffic here is moving smoothly but this is short-lived as there is more traffic after Integrity Centre due to the round about at GPO. Neema is getting agitated. She does not know how long this traffic may take as it is controlled manually by policemen. She contemplates alighting to walk but the distance is still a bit far for her. In a bid to calm herself, her mind wanders...she begins to ask herself whether she should have left the house a bit earlier...or perhaps found an alternative mode of transport, perhaps a motorbike? "Kshs. 150 is too expensive for the short distance," she says to herself. "What if I buy a cycle instead? Wait...it's not safe." There are no cycling lanes in the city. The traffic begins to flow, 15 minutes have elapsed. She's getting hopeful, but the bus stops again...yes, the round about. 9.50 am, she cannot afford to wait another second so she alights at this point and hurriedly walks towards Mama Ngina Street. It takes her about 15 minutes to get to her destination. She is agitated, sweaty, nervous...it's several minutes past 10:00 am when she arrives and settles down. She is late for her appointment.
Both Jabali and Neema belong to the same economic group, live in close proximity to the city, but their mobility experiences are completely different. As a result, these two individuals are not equally placed to compete on the same playing field. Inequalities and inefficiencies in the urban system are a direct result of poor or total lack of urban planning.
Lack of urban planning results in complex and unfavourable urban environments
Urban planning is the backbone of efficient urban systems. While other professions play their roles in managing the different elements of the built environment, urban planning is the field that ties them all together. An urban planner is trained and seasoned to look at the development needs of an area from a holistic perspective factoring in the political, socio-economic and technical aspects of development. Constructing a well engineered road, for instance, without putting into proper consideration the population, demographic, political and economic trends and implications of the development greatly compromises its sustainability.
Various professionals specialize on subject areas such as electrical engineering, quantity surveying, construction, building design and so on; planners specialize in integrating all aspects of development to produce plans that anticipate and mitigate current and future challenges identifying new possibilities well in advance. This makes urban planning a professional field that cannot be undermined nor ignored. Without adequate urban planning, our cities, towns and urban areas will continue to operate inefficiently which in turn affects the quality of life for the average mwananchi (citizen).
What next?
The time has come for Kenyans to agitate and insist on their right to live and operate in well-planned urban areas in accordance to the Physical Planning Act of Kenya, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda. Let all professionals within the built environment operate with integrity and practice professionalism by executing their mandates within legal jurisdiction to avoid compromising the quality of service we offer Kenyans.
Let us plan Kenya! Let us plan Africa!