Sakaja Slapped With Demands to Restore Nairobi’s Construction Approval System

The Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) has called on Nairobi Governor Sakaja and the Nairobi City County Government to restore the e-permitting system after the prolonged outage.

In a statement which is dated July 31, 2026, AAK said it has received complaints from its members over the continued unavailability of the Nairobi Planning and Development Management System (NPDMS).

According to AAK, the system has not been operational for several weeks, including most of July, and the platform is the primary system used to submit, pay, and approve planning and development applications.

Therefore, its prolonged downtime has disrupted a key public service which supports the construction and property development sector.

SBE

AAK further cited data from the State of the Built Environment (SBE) 2025 report, which shows that Nairobi County processed an average of 169 development applications monthly in 2025.

According to AAK, these approvals generated about Ksh 113 million in fees from projects which are valued at an average of 18.7 billion.

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Additionally, AAK said the e-permitting platform was introduced to enhance efficiency, enhance transparency, strengthen development control, and promote compliance.

However, AAK argued that the current system outage is undermining these objectives and slowing down investment and economic activity.

Nairobi County Government

In addition, the association revealed that it has formally written to Nairobi County Government regarding the matter and is following up to ensure the issue is resolved.

Despite the platform experiencing minor challenges, the complete system outage poses a serious problem to users because they are unable to report issues, seek assistance, or track applications.

Furthermore, the ability of professionals to serve clients has also been affected, alongside delaying projects for developers, creating uncertainty for investors and denying the county opportunity for revenue generation.

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Meanwhile, AAK asked the county government to always communicate on such matters to keep stakeholders informed whenever system interruptions occur.

Sakaja has now been called to restore the e-permitting system, with AAK saying the system interruption is making the public lose confidence in Nairobi’s development approval process.

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George Ndege, the President of the Architectural Association of Kenya. PHOTO/Standard