*WAITHERA CHEGE: HOW JUNIOR OFFICER APPROVED 600 ILLEGAL BUILDINGS IN NAIROBI

Deputy Minority Leader of the Nairobi County Assembly and Nairobi South Ward MCA, Hon. Waithera Chege, has lifted the lid on what she terms a deeply entrenched cartel in Nairobi’s building approvals sector, linking it to the continued collapse of buildings in the capital.

In a hard-hitting statement issued hours after a building collapsed in Eastleigh, Hon. Chege revealed that a junior officer, who is not mandated by law to approve buildings, had by 2023 irregularly approved over 600 buildings in Nairobi without the knowledge of senior county officials.

According to the outspoken MCA, the officer lacked system rights or legal authority to issue such approvals, yet single-handedly authorized hundreds of developments across the city, putting thousands of lives at risk.

Even more shocking, Chege disclosed that the officer, when questioned, confirmed that he had received delegation powers directly from the Governor himself — a claim that has raised serious legal and governance questions, since under the Nairobi County Physical Planning laws, approval powers are vested in specific technical officers and cannot be whimsically delegated to unauthorized persons.

“The law is very clear on who should approve buildings. A junior officer who is not mandated by law had approved over 600 buildings in Nairobi by 2023 without the knowledge of senior county officials. He lacked system rights or authority to issue the approvals but confirmed he received delegation powers from the Governor himself,” Hon. Waithera Chege stated.

The revelations are not new. Chege noted that the Office of the Ombudsman, in its official report, had already investigated the matter and recommended criminal prosecution and disciplinary action against the officer over unlawful building authorization. The Ombudsman found that due process was flouted and that the approvals posed a danger to public safety.

Despite that damning recommendation, and despite the Nairobi County Assembly formally demanding his arrest and prosecution, the officer is still roaming free in town, untouched, while Nairobians continue to live and work in potentially unsafe structures.

“He is still roaming in town even after the Assembly demanded his arrest,” Chege lamented, questioning who is protecting the individual and why the Executive has failed to act.

Her statement comes against the backdrop of yet another tragedy — the Eastleigh building that collapsed today, trapping occupants and leaving several injured. The MCA sent a message of quick recovery to those injured and those trapped inside the collapsed structure, even as she warned that more such incidents are inevitable if the approval rot is not urgently addressed.

“This is not an accident. This is negligence, impunity and a failure of leadership. Quick recovery to those injured and those trapped inside the Eastleigh building that has just collapsed. But how many more must suffer before we act?” she posed.

Hon. Chege, who has been a consistent critic of the current Nairobi City County administration’s handling of planning and development control, said the Eastleigh incident is a direct consequence of a system that has been commercialized, where approvals are allegedly dished out without proper technical evaluation, site inspections or adherence to structural standards.

She pointed out that senior technical officers in the Planning department have previously disowned many of the approvals, telling oversight committees that they were not aware of the files, yet buildings continued to sprout across Eastlands, Kasarani, South C, Eastleigh and other rapidly growing estates.

“When senior officers themselves say they don’t know how these buildings were approved, then you know we have a big problem. We have an illegal system running parallel to the legal one,” she added.

The Deputy Minority Leader now wants the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to move with speed and arrest not only the junior officer but also everyone who enabled, protected or benefited from the illegal approvals. She also wants an immediate audit of all buildings approved between 2020 and 2024 to ascertain their structural integrity.

Chege did not mince her words on where the buck stops, stating that a Governor who is completely out of touch with what is happening in critical dockets such as Planning should just resign.

“A Governor who is completely out of touch should just resign. You cannot have over 600 buildings approved illegally under your watch and claim you don’t know. Either you are complicit or you are incompetent. Either way, Nairobians deserve better,” she said.

She rallied Nairobians to demand accountability, saying the fight to clean up City Hall is far from over. She concluded her statement with a rallying call that has become her signature on social media: #DrainTheSwamp2027.

The Eastleigh collapse adds to a worrying trend of buildings caving in Nairobi, especially during rainy seasons. In the last two years alone, the city has witnessed over ten such incidents, some fatal, with investigations often leading nowhere.

As rescue operations continue in Eastleigh, pressure is now mounting on Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration to explain how illegal approvals thrived, why Ombudsman recommendations were ignored, and what measures are in place to prevent the next disaster.

Hon. Waithera Chege has vowed to table a fresh motion in the County Assembly next week to compel the County Executive to implement the Ombudsman’s report and to publish the list of all buildings approved by the officer in question.

“This is about lives. This is not politics,” she affirmed.