- The development is being undertaken by Harambee Sacco and Cooperative Society Limited, among others.
- The judge said it is essential for the court to determine the matter conclusively by interrogating the allegations raised by the residents.
Image: FILE
A court has stopped the construction of a 16-storey apartment at City Park Drive after residents complained of its lack of a sewer line that puts their health at risk.
Justice Oscar Angote issued the temporary orders compelling the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services to stop any further development on City Park Drive, Parklands.
The development is being undertaken by Harambee Sacco and Cooperative Society Limited, among others.
The judge said it is essential for the court to determine the matter conclusively by interrogating the allegations raised by the residents.
Some of the allegations are on whether the 50-plus houses that were on the suit property were demolished with the permission of NMS, and whether the waste management system has been put in place among other measures required under the Physical and Land use planning Act.
“There is a significant mushrooming of high rise developments in Nairobi which are gaining permission swiftly from the county government and other agencies,”Justice Angote said.
The judge said these agencies do not sometimes seem to take into account the impacts of approving multi-dwelling developments on the environment, particularly on waste management systems.
NMS opposed the application saying the court lacked jurisdiction to hear and determine the matter. NMS said there is already another suit pending at the National Environment Tribunal filed by same parties raising similar issues. Harambee claimed the same thing saying orders being sought are pending determination before the Tribunal.
Directions will be issued by judge on October 23, 2023.
David Ndambiri and Titus Kitonga, the petitioners in the case, sued NMS, General Mohamed Badi, the Attorney General and four others.
They told the court that they will suffer irreversible damages as the construction is going on unrestricted.
The activities being undertaken, they said, are harmful to the environment and infringe on their right and the public’s right to a clean and healthy environment, particularly due to the lack of connection to a public sewer, which may result in waste seeping into the Mathare River.
The petitioners alleged that the development on the suit property is being constructed illegally as the alleged authority to demolish the houses on the land to pave way for the development, and cutting down the tress on the suit property, is not genuine.
Ndambiri occupies and resides on House No. G erected on a property at Taza Lane, off City Park Drive, which is opposite the disputed property where construction and development activities are ongoing.
The judge in granting the temporary relief said the alleged harms cannot be quantified in monetary terms and would cause irreparable harm to the environment.
“That being the case, it is the finding of the court that the petitioners have established that irreparable harm not only to the petitioners, but also to the environment, maybe occasioned unless orders are issued,” the judge said.