A new report by the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) has established that investors in Mombasa County pay hefty bribes inorder to expedite acquisition of building approvals.
Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) was doing a survey in Kenya's three major cities and seven wealthiest counties where it emerged that property developers in Mombasa pay upto one million shillings to be issued with building permits, reads the report in seen by Daily Nation.
According to the report, the investors in Uasin Gishu, Kisumu and Kajiado counties pay bribe of Ksh100,000. Those in Kakamega and Nakuru counties parted with Ksh5,000, and Ksh20,000 respectively.
According to the report, Kiambu county which is experiencing rapid growth of malls, the developers in the region paid at least Ksh 30,000.
“Manual applications and approval processes where applicants have to follow up from one office to another to seek approval cause delays and are costly,” read the report.
The survey found out that Nairobi, Nyeri and Machakos counties were 'clean' as the investors did not pay bribes to any state agency for fast issuance of approvals.
"There should be harmonisation and standardisation of approval fees to enable counties compete evenly in attracting investments for their various development projects," stated AAK Secretary General Mugure Njendu.
The Association further called for reduction of steps in approvals process for an application to be approved saying it is time costly as it takes an average of 160 days compared to Rwanda's 112 days.