•Engineer Erick Ohaga in a statement on Wednesday said the fees will be burdensome to developers and the industry recovering from the Covid-19 slowdown.
•All applications and payments have to be made online through the E-Citizen-Nema licensing portal.
Engineers have protested the reintroduction of construction levies paid to the National Environment Management Authority warning that it will be detrimental to the industry.
The Institution of Engineers of Kenya president Erick Ohaga in a statement on Wednesday said the fees will be burdensome to developers and the industry recovering from the Covid-19 slowdown.
“There is no justification for the fees as Nema is fully funded by the government and has been operational without these fees. Moreover, fixing the fees at 0.1% of the project cost is not justified as projects are unique in nature,” he said.
Ohaga said the additional costs to projects will discourage new developers and drive away foreign ones in Kenya.
“We also note with concern that a stakeholder engagement and public participation was not conducted before the decision to reintroduce the fees,” he said.
He said the cost of critical construction materials such as steel and cement as well as transportation costs have sharply risen in recent months.
“Developers, therefore, need to be cushioned rather than being weighed down further by additional charges.”
Ohaga said the Strategic Environmental Assessment processing and monitoring fees should be funded separately as it is carried out long before individual projects are assessed for environmental impacts.
This, he said, will be a burden and unfair levy on individual development projects.
“We strongly advise against the reinstatement of Nema fees and urge the government to reconsider the decision as this may be detrimental to the construction industry,” he said.
The Kenya Property Developers Association has also protested the move.
In October 2016, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed the scrapping of the fee, a move that was meant to lower project costs.
The Environment ministry through Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko has, however, been fighting to reintroduce the fee arguing that scrapping it had an unintended negative impact on Nema’s activities by choking its income and burdening taxpayers.
Nema Director General Mamo Mamo told the Star that the resources they get from the government are not enough.
Mamo said other revenue streams will ensure that Nema expands its operations.
"We have a staff of slightly above 400 that needs to be increased to 1,200," he said.
Mamo said the authority is keen to generate revenue up to Sh5 billion.
Nema gets less than Sh2 billion from the government.
Before the removal of the fees, contractors used to pay between Sh10, 000 and Sh40 million for environmental audits, depending on their projects’ risk levels.
Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) entails a critical examination of the effects of a project on the environment.
It identifies both negative and positive impacts of a given project, how it affects people, their property and the environment.
The assessment ensures that appropriate safeguards, management, and monitoring plans are put in place to protect public health, the environment and enhance sustainable development.
The fifth schedule of the Environmental (Impact Assessment and audit) regulations 2003 as reviewed through gazette notice No 13211 of 2013 provides for an EIA processing and monitoring fee of 0.1 per cent of the total project cost to a minimum of Sh 10,000, graded fees for registration and licensing of EIA experts among other EIA processing fees.
For instance, a developer putting up an Sh100 million project will pay Sh100, 000 as an IEA processing and monitoring fee.
EIA for a project like the Sh87.9 billion Nairobi Expressway would cost up to Sh87.9 million.
Nema announced that with effect from June 1, EIA processing and monitoring fees, strategic environmental assessment (SEA) processing and monitoring fees, and environmental assessment experts' registration and licensing fees will be reinstated.
All applications and payments have to be made online through the E-Citizen-Nema licensing portal.
Each EIA application will be accompanied by a certified bill of quantities indicating the proposed project cost.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)