Gideon Muratha on LinkedIn: #construction #network (2024)

Overflowing CitiesThe past few weeks have seen our headlines, social media pages, and dailies hit with the topic of FLOODS, which have ravaged and plundered our nation mercilessly. The displacement of people, the damage of property, and the loss of hundreds of lives suggest that something is amiss.To assess the severity of this issue and explore potential solutions. I will tackle the issue from a multi-disciplinary perspective, focusing on water necessity, urbanization, and land use.I heard a Netizen ask, “If water is the cause of all this, why not build far away from it?” For one, we must acknowledge that we, as human beings, love water, and that necessitates that we build around areas with an adequate supply of water.From history alone, we see that even the name derives from the “Maa” word, meaning a place of cool water. The significance of water for trade, consumption, and even agriculture has led to the development of nearly all major cities worldwide around these areas. Metropolises developed around water bodies range from London to New York, Shanghai in China, Istanbul in Turkey, Paris in France, and Cairo in Egypt.Now that we are up to date with this fact, we turn to urbanization as our second area. With the increased population and movement to urban areas, we have seen an increase in the number of city dwellers. Cities like Nairobi, which currently hosts over 5 million people—about 10% of Kenya's total population—will continue to see huge population spikes as people become attracted to the opportunities in such hubs. Hold this thought...With rapid urbanization, housing has emerged as a necessity. This huge demand for housing has led developers, both private and institutional, to identify a need that they can best serve by building rentals. So over the years, we have seen the unplanned and uncontrolled development of rental houses in a bid to tap into this market for home renters. The erection of numerous apartment blocks has occurred without the necessary structural support.The floods that we are seeing are a result of poor planning, which has seen us build on riparian land and water channels, ignoring drainage all together. Structures and roads in general are impervious, and when built, they reduce the surface upon which rainwater naturally drains. The water then has to flow through in search of a channel to drain through, and as it does so, it accumulates to dangerous volumes.Another reason is that our infrastructure systems are not growing at the same rate as we see development. God, being the most genius of creators, knew that if your neck grew very tall and disproportionate to your arms, then how would you cover your nose in case of a sneeze? This very scenario is what has happened to our cities. Our apartments have grown to towering levels, but the drainage needed to dispose of the water hasn’t; in fact, it has even shrunk, making it impossible to serve our needs and hence the "uncontrolled sneeze"Stay safe🤝

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It was a really great experience and the game made it even more fun and educating. Such a creative way to bring climate issues to the spotlight 😁

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I am honored for the opportunity given by The Institution of Engineers of Kenya to air out my sentiments about how Trades in Service marry in with Sustainability in their issue 16 magazine. The short highlight shows how by our respective efforts in our own professional trades we get to impact a sustainable tomorrow.

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Special Economic Zones and the Future they hold for Kenya;Today was indeed a special day, not only because it was a leap day 29th 😅 , but also because I had the opportunity to join Association of Construction Managers of Kenya (ACMK)) on their Tatu City tour. Tatu City, probably one of the pioneer Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in Kenya that started about 12 years ago, is both a work of art and a significant milestone of where we have come as a nation.But before we deeply dive into the lessons learned from the tour, let's discuss the fancy word I have equipped above:Special Economic Zones (SEZs).The latter, in simple terms, basically means areas exempted from different economic regulations compared to other areas. In such areas, we normally notice that some taxes, investment rules, and general trade don’t apply to zone residents, be they manufacturers or commercial dwellers. In a nutshell, they are an inviting way of getting investors into the country and creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.The tour was eye-opening regarding the direction Development is taking in our nation. Apart from that, I was inspired by how planning has been adhered to in the City, and we have a lot to learn from the Development regarding urban planning.At the heart of the Development is sustainability, and while it may seem cliché that everyone is using the term nowadays, for Tatu, it has been implemented well and here is why:- To begin with, the zoning of areas in the city creates an efficient utilization of space that safeguards its residents. The EIA for commercial and industrial zones 🏭 was done separately from the residential side, creating living spaces free from industrial disturbances and pollution.- Secondly, the design of green spaces speaks for itself. With over 30% of the area being green spaces, heat waves and other Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects will hardly occur.- Sustainability 🌱 also cuts across the business landscape, and the fact that production in the zone doesn’t incur VAT means businesses in the City can thrive and create a resource-efficient economic ecosystem for their workers and investors.- Lastly, the 3 concepts of work, live and play (perhaps justifying the name ‘Tatu’) suggest that you could do all you need without leaving the space. The result is that residents in the areas will have lower carbon footprints as everything they need is nearby.Special thanks to Association of Construction Managers of Kenya (ACMK) for organizing the tour and Tatu City for hosting us warmly and giving us a brief fit for Investors 😂.

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Sustainable and Affordable Housing in Kenya Webinar 🌱 :The term affordable housing has been on the mouths of many Kenyans of late. Ever since the current regime took charge they launched and ambitious plan to make housing affordable for all Citizens. So why is their much debate on the subject and why should you care about the affordable housing project? Stick with me to find out. First a special thanks to Kenya Green Building Society for organizing the informative webinar and to the panelists who came from a diverse pool of professions;-Graeme Reid CEO, Tilisi Developments PLC-Lydia Owuor, Partner, CDH legal-Stella Mutai, Head of Mortgage Business, HFC-Azmeena Bhanji, Chairperson KGBSThat aside it is very clear that the path towards creating an affordable housing system for Kenya needs to be diverse and involve various stakeholders. In summarizing the webinar, I will break it down into two parts; the WHY in affordable housing and the HOW.- Why Affordable Housing?The webinar shed light on the importance of having affordable houses especially in our Urban areas with stats showing that about 34% of Kenyans reside in Urban areas and of this 70% live in slums and such informal settlements. This clearly points out to the need to address housing in a manner that encompasses such groups. Moreover, this goes hand in hand with SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities- The How in Affordable HousingThe how segments basically touches on issues such as funding models and technologies backing this up. For you to have something be affordable, it means you need financing for it and it was clear from the webinar of all the financing options at our disposal including;-Joint ventures-Private equity And on the supply side some options that were given such as REITs could really open up financing and help us hit the affordable targets of the projects. Also another alternative financing model that might also push for the development of housing that is also sustainability centric is the Green bonds which help in incentivizing developers to adopt green measures.Additionally in the how section it was clearly demystified about the application of sectional title deeds especially with the rapid urbanization which allows the sub-division of single owned properties into individual spaces kind of like the apartments. The webinar also exposed some challenges faced by developers in the country which serve to increase the costs as a result of delays. This includes;-The fragmented approval process at the county levels and the high cost of getting infrastructure linking to the various projects.Takeaways:a. We need to channel more resources in adopting Alternative Building materials and Technologies.b. The government partnerships with private developers in delivering affordable housing might be the best approach to take.co-authored: Ahmad Sabri

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