Architect Arthur Adeya has attributed Nairobi’s persistent urban challenges to outdated colonial-era planning models that prioritized control over growth, arguing the city remained ill-prepared for rapid population expansion.
Speaking on Radio Generation on Thursday, he said the country inherited “a colonial philosophy that was really about containment, not growth,” noting that the city “was supposed to be controlled, pristine and planned for 350,000 people in 1948.”
He added that subsequent efforts to improve the city “were not really about encouraging growth,” a mismatch that continued to shape modern-day planning challenges.
Adeya explained that as urbanization accelerated, particularly after the political and economic shifts of 2002, existing frameworks failed to keep pace with the realities of a fast-growing, market-driven city.
“Economics, especially the free market society, moves very quickly… you’re not going to tell five million people wait, we are thinking, they’ll be moving,” he said, describing the difficulty of controlling rapid expansion through rigid planning systems.
According to him, the disconnect lay in the fact that planners attempted to manage a dynamic urban environment using outdated assumptions.
“We were trying to plan and control for a different thing that was moving a lot faster than we anticipated,” he noted, adding that professionals at the time “were not fully armed with preparing regulations that would encourage healthy growth.”
Adeya pointed to the growing importance of urban economics in understanding city development, saying the discipline offered predictive models on how cities evolve.
Referencing insights from Order Without Design by urban planner Alain Bertaud, he observed that planning professionals often underestimate the force of economic dynamics in shaping cities.
“The trouble is… design and planning professionals were not as aware of the force of economics,” he said, noting that even then, urban economists remained scarce in local planning circles.
He added that while Kenya had developed tactical responses to urban growth, it lacked a cohesive long-term strategy. “We knew the tactics… but we didn’t have a strategy,” Adeya warned, urging policymakers to integrate economic insights into planning or risk continued disorganized urban expansion.
Nairobi has been facing a severe urban planning crisis in the recent past after devastating floods killed 36 people in the city and 88 people nationwide since early March 2026.
Triggered by intense rainfall exceeding 112mm in 24 hours, the floods submerged major roads and displaced thousands, exposing long-standing infrastructural and governance gaps.
In response, Nairobi City County launched the Sh50 billion Nairobi River Regeneration Programme, began demolishing illegal structures on riparian land, and advanced an integrated mobility plan, amid growing calls for climate-resilient urban planning reforms.
