Kiambu Goes Digital on Construction

Kiambu County has developed an electronic development application management system (e-DAMS) to counter the tragic collapse of buildings under construction and enhance public safety.

Kiambu County has developed an electronic development application management system (e-DAMS) to counter the tragic collapse of buildings under construction and enhance public safety.

The application, which received technical support from World Bank Group, has also supported the implementation of electronic construction permits in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu Counties.

Speaking on Wednesday in Kiambu during a stakeholders’ sensitization workshop, County Executive Officer in-charge of Land Housing and Physical Planning Ms. Eunice Kumunga said the county’s e-DAMS is the first construction permit system in Kenya that adds the planning and inspections work flows.

Kumunga said the electronic application will change the way communities across the county do business, speeding the construction permit process for builders, inspectors and plan reviewers.

“The electronic application system will provide better and timely information to decision makers, managers and staff throughout the County of Kiambu,” she said.

The County executive noted that the main objective of regulating building permits is to ensure the health and safety of the community.

“Sound regulation of construction helps protect the public from faulty building practices,” said Kumunga.

On the same score, she said the regulation has important implications for policy-makers who need to strike the right balance between the cost and checks imposed on industry and the real benefits in safety and health standards.

Chief Officer for Land Housing and Physical Planning Mr. David Gatimu, said the building permit process also plays a critical gate-keeper role in protecting a range of other public goods such as the environment or preventing potentially harmful industries from locating in residential areas.

“When this gate-keeper function is not carefully managed and coordinated with the relevant authorities, an insurmountable bureaucracy may emerge, which is likely to discourage investment and increase the level of informality,” noted Gatimu.

Globally, Kenya was ranked 149th out of 189 economies in the world by the World Bank Doing Business 2016 report on the ease of dealing with construction permits.

In March 2016, the County of Kiambu signed a Cooperation Agreement with the World Bank Group’s Kenya Investment Climate Programme 2, thus partnering to reform the County’s business environment in order to facilitate the creation and licensing of businesses.

County Director of Physical Planning Ms. Hannah Maranga said the electronic application system will reduce red tape bureaucracies, the cost of doing business, streamline processes and ultimately attract more private investment in the county.

“Automating the construction permit system is one of the key objectives of this partnership,” said Ms Maranga.

Maranga disclosed that the county worked with the World Bank Group’s Kenya Investment Climate Program 2 (KICP 2), a three year program financed by UK Aid and the Dutch government to design, develop, test and deploy the online system for construction permits.

Ms Maranga noted that the e-Construction Permit system eliminates physical documents and thus working in an entirely paperless manner.

She said that applications such as change of user, sub-division, regularization for change of user and sub-division, extension of lease and use applications will be submitted, reviewed and approved online.

“The system shall introduce far-reaching efficiencies in the administration of construction permits touching on the simultaneous review of building proposals by reviewers,” said Maranga.

She lamented that in the current manual system, physical plans move from section to section in the county undergoing review and commenting at each section.

Further, Maranga said the system is targeted at registered architects by displaying information on the successes of each architect and to build good profiles in the system by seeing their projects to successful and lawful completion.

By Yobesh Onwong’a