Residents of Golfview Estate in Gatanga sub-county have protested a move by a landowner in the area to put up high-rise residential units out rightly contravening their estate’s development plan.
According to the estate dwellers, the estate is zoned for construction of single-dwelling units per plot.
Led by their chairman Ben Kairang’a, the residents decried that recently a section of plot owners in the estate have been disregarding the estate rules and regulations to put up commercial buildings.
So far, Kairang’a said the estate’s association has stalled construction of several structures that were by last week suspected to be going against the estate regulations.
The recent case is that of an upcoming apartment in the area whose construction, they said, breaks all the estate rules among them lack of requisite plan and drawings from the local government.
The chairman decried that besides occasioning insecurity, construction of rental and industrial units in the area is also out-of-place as the estate lacks requisite amenities to suit such construction singling out nonexistence of a sewer system to support high-rise and populous dwelling units.
His statement was echoed by Daniel Mwaura, an architect from the estate who insisted that the ongoing project owner has defied the Planning Act that safeguards various plots and land owners to enjoy their property as zoned.
Mwaura said that the estate members will disallow any efforts to interfere with the estate development plan lamenting that people have run away from other plan-less estates within Thika town such as Landless and Ngoingwa to build residential homes at the area only to be faced with the imminent impunity.
He said that should the ongoing illegal projects fail to be stopped, Mwaura said the estate association will institute legal action so as to protect dwellers.
He added that the land ownership documents for the estate clearly indicate that the area has been zoned for single-dwelling units, a policy they will protect without fear or favour.
Efforts to reach the contentious building owner were unproductive but the site manager dismissed as fallacious, claims that the plot owner had broken any of the estate rules.
Instead, the site manager who requested not to be filmed instead said that the plot owner was fulfilling president Uhuru Kenyatta’s agenda on affordable housing.