Major factors that lead to uncontrolled development; a case study of house extensions n Buru buru Nairobi

Abstract

Urban centres are areas of interacting systems, namely the activity system, the land development and the environmental system. This interaction results to, various forms of land use with their resulting impact on the environment. The fact that these are centres of population concentration, people must live and undertake their economic and social activities, in some form of shelter. Unless this urban growth is managed in a proper manner, uncontrolled urban settlement is the manifestation. Urban developments are expected to take place in a manner that is guide~ by a proper planning policy and planning regulations. The high incidence of unauthorised structures in the city, drives one to investigate the picture behind the scene, that is the actors and the factors that bring about this uncontrolled development. The study therefore, is an attempt to identify the factors that drive developers to initiate previously unscheduled constructions. It also tries to- uncover the various weaknesses, characterising the planning authority with the duty of overseeing development in the city. This is because ~ . the agency t.~~-the institution, seems to be failing in its ", - . duty, to guide development in the city. To get things into perspective, the study focuses on Buru Buru estate in Nairobi . It's cons~ruction started in the 1970s ending in the 80s, and with its original plan highly distorted, it offered a good case study. The study applied a methodology, in which random sampling was used for primary data collection. Secondary data from several documents and publications was also extracted.