Sonko calls for full audit of City Hall’s Planning department

An explosive purge targeting Nairobi County’s planning department is looming after embattled Governor Mike Sonko ordered for a full systems audit to expose rogue officials who are said to have turned the section into a den of extortion and bribery. 

 The audit, according to sources at City Hall, was commissioned after tens of residential associations in Nairobi wrote to Sonko complaining of impunity in the department that has been offering permits to set up tall buildings against the law. 

Sonko has already suspended his planning department chief officer Justus Kathenge for allegedly violating Physical Planning Act and zoning regulations, and who the governor has accused of sabotaging his government and being the mastermind of the extortion racket.

  So deep is the rot at the planning department, the People Daily has learnt, that some senior officials have been switching off the system to facilitate illegal transactions and then shifting blame to outside sources, who have since denied interfering with the county servers.

The approvals have seen the county get at loggerheads with sensitive departments such as Department of Defence and State House.

 Last month, the governor accused his officers of hiding the complaint letters from him.

The estates under scrutiny include South C, Karen, Kileleshwa and Lavington where claims of buildings constructed without adherence to zoning regulations are widespread.

 Sonko warned that buildings which will be found to have been erected without compliance of zoning regulations will be demolished.