State Agency Exposes Five Top Names Linked To Poor Building Approvals In Nairobi, Recommends Dismissal After City Hall Probe

Five senior Nairobi County officials are staring at possible jail time and removal from office after the Office of the Ombudsman tore apart their role in a rot-infested building approval system that has turned the capital into a ticking time bomb.

In a damning report released on Friday that reads like a manual on how not to run a city, the Commission on Administrative Justice has recommended that Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga move swiftly to charge the officials with crimes related to approving death-trap developments in flagrant violation of the law.

The five names now under the spotlight are County Executive Committee Member for Built Environment and Urban Planning Stephen Mwangi, Chief Officer for Urban Planning Patrick Analo, Assistant Director for Development Control Fredrick Ochanda, Development Control Officer Simon Omondi, and Director of Planning, Compliance and Enforcement Tom Achar.

According to the explosive report, the quintet presided over a system so broken that approvals were rubber-stamped before meetings were even held, objections from technical experts were swept under the carpet, and enforcement notices were treated like junk mail while illegal construction carried on unabated.

“Multiple Nairobi City County officials contributed to irregular approvals, weak enforcement, and ongoing violations of planning and building regulations,” the Ombudsman alleged, painting a picture of institutional collapse at City Hall.

Commission Chairperson Charles Dulo did not mince words, declaring that the approvals were irregular, non-transparent, and contrary to legal and planning frameworks.

The failures, he said, not only trampled on the rights of neighbouring property owners but shattered public confidence in Nairobi’s development control processes.

The report details a litany of shocking irregularities that would be laughable if they were not so dangerous. In one instance that defies logic, investigators found that an approval letter was issued a day before the Urban Planning Technical Committee even sat down to consider the application, and weeks before the responsible executive supposedly gave it the green light.

The Ombudsman has given the DPP one month to report back on progress in prosecuting the cases, signaling that this is not another report destined to gather dust on a shelf somewhere.

But criminal charges are just the beginning of the reckoning facing these officials. The Nairobi City County Assembly has been urged to initiate impeachment proceedings against Mwangi for what the Commission termed gross misconduct and a betrayal of public trust.

The report accuses Mwangi of ratifying building plans despite unresolved technical issues, relying solely on forwarded memos without bothering to verify anything independently, and failing to enforce orders even after approvals were revoked, essentially giving developers a free pass to break the law with impunity.

The recommendations land against the backdrop of a horror show of building collapses that have killed Nairobians and exposed the deadly cost of regulatory failure. Most recently, a building under construction in South C crumbled, claiming at least two lives and reigniting fears about how many other structures in the city are accidents waiting to happen.

At the heart of the investigation is a contested development in Eastleigh that was waved through despite unresolved technical objections, ignored mandatory setbacks, and enforcement notices that developers treated with contempt. The approvals, the Commission concluded, were not isolated mistakes but symptoms of an institutional culture that tolerated and sometimes actively facilitated illegal construction.

“The evidence before us shows approvals that were irregular, non-transparent and plainly contrary to the law,” Dulo said. “Public officers entrusted with safeguarding orderly development instead presided over a process that undermined safety standards and eroded trust.”

The probe was triggered by a complaint lodged in October 2023 by Coldstone Investment Limited, which accused neighbouring developer Khaleej Towers Limited of putting up a building that violated zoning rules and encroached on its property. But as investigators dug deeper, the case morphed from a private property dispute into an indictment of how City Hall does business.

Beyond pointing fingers at individuals, the Commission exposed structural rot in the system. The county’s Planning and Development Management System allowed officers to assign applications to themselves, push files forward despite outstanding objections, and issue approvals without proper checks. Critical departments like public health and fire safety were routinely sidelined, and enforcement was described as practically non-existent.

The Ombudsman also put a price tag on the damage. Coldstone Investment Limited suffered special damages of Sh2.53 million covering everything from roof repairs to demolished boundary walls and damaged clotheslines. But the real pain was assessed in the form of Sh20 million in general damages for loss of privacy, persistent nuisance, and destruction of property, to be paid jointly by Nairobi County and Khaleej Towers within one month.

The Commission has also called for disciplinary action against several technical officers through the County Public Service Board and urged the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate possible corruption in the premature issuance of approvals.

The sweeping reforms demanded by the Ombudsman amount to one of the strongest official condemnations yet of how Nairobi’s construction boom has been allowed to run wild, unchecked by the very officials paid to keep it in line.

As Nairobians watch buildings shoot up around them, many now wonder which one might be the next to come crashing down, and whether anyone at City Hall actually cares enough to stop it.