Officials in the Nakuru county housing and planning department have been warned against approving and clearing construction projects which do not meet required standards.
Speaking in Molo constituency on Sunday when he laid a foundation for the construction of a church, Nakuru Governor Kinuthia Mbugua said that his government will take stern action against officers who will be found to have approved the construction of sub-standard projects in the county.
Mbugua said that planning officials should take a lesson from what happened in Nairobi where sub-standard buildings collapsed and killed people.
He said, “Corruption in the planning sector is the major cause of the collapsing buildings we are seeing in Nairobi because the buildings are constructed using sub-standard material and without proper plans but they get clearance from government and I will not allow that to happen in Nakuru.”
“An inspection will be done on all buildings under construction across the county and anybody found to have approved and cleared a sub-standard building will be punished because we do not want to put the lives of our people at risks which we can avoid,” added Mbugua.
Mbugua said that the directive applies to both public and private buildings.
County housing and planning executive, Rachael Maina, who had accompanied the governor said that her ministry will soon begin an extensive inspection on all buildings to establish if they are fit for inhabitation or not and warned that unfit buildings will be demolished.
“With the help of the National construction authority (NCA), we will soon embark on an inspection of all buildings in all major towns in the county beginning with Nakuru. Any sub-standard buildings will be demolished to avert any future disasters,” said Maina.