UHDA Newsletter END OF 2016 ISSUE| ISSUE 10

UHDA NEWS

INSIDE:

Welcome Note

Woodley Ward

The Informal Traders

UHDA 2016 Highlights

UHDA Members & Partners

Photo by Sebastian Wanzilla

2 | UHDA NEWSLETTER

Welcome Note

We mark the end of the year with two recent members joining ; The British High Commission and The Nairobi Hospital, totaling our 2016 membership to 46 property owners. This year we have forged additional partnerships with various institutions to not only enhance the membership but also strengthen the Upper Hill community. The institutions include; Kenya Power, Upper Hill Secondary and Kibera Sub County Administration.

2016 can be summed up as our most aggressive year yet since our inception 15 years ago. In this edition, we have included some of the year’s highlights that were made possible by your support and contribution. As we gear up for 2017, you can be assured that we intend to keep this momentum and make Upper Hill the best place to live and do business.

Borrowing a leaf from Rwanda, we plan to hold a street clean up in January 2017 to kick off the year. The clean up is aimed to clean Upper Hill and also bring the community together. This clean up is also in line with what was discussed in the June 2016 brainstorming session.

The long awaited Upper Hill marketing video has been shot and is set to be unveiled in early January 2017. The video was also part of the discussion in the brainstorming session.

For now, we take the opportunity to thank all our members and partners for the immense support we have received this year. Our milestones would not be possible with your support, thank you.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2017!

Our offices remained closed from 23rd December

2016 —9th January 2017.

Upper Hill District Association

Real Towers Annex, 2nd Floor | Hospital Road, Upper Hill

P.O Box 38922- 00100 GPO, Nairobi.

+254 739584765

@uhda_KE

www.uhda.or.ke

upperhill@uhda.or.ke

WOODLEY WARD Here’s something you might not know.

Upper Hill and Kibera are related.

While the two are such disparities and famous in their own rights, they are very much related.

The adoption of the new Constitution in 2010 created a decentralized government where Counties formerly known as Constituencies were created and further devolved to Sub– Counties.

Nairobi County happens to hold both the City and County title, making it very unique. Nairobi has 17 Sub– Counties , the most compared to other counties. In those 17 Sub– Counties, there are a staggering 85 wards which include Kibera Sub– County. Kibera Sub– County has 5 wards which out of those five, four are located in Kibera. They include Laini Saba, Makina, Lindi and Sarangombe. The larger part of Upper Hill belongs to Woodley Ward which extends from Ngong road (Adams Arcade) to Kenya Railways Golf course making it the biggest ward (in terms of size) among the 5 wards.

Under each Sub County there is a Member of Parliament (MP), a Member of County Assembly (MCA) and a Ward Administrator. Kibra Sub County has Kenneth Okoth as the area MP, David Njoroge as the MCA and Nicholas Lemeiyan as Woodley Ward Administrator.

The office Sub– county office is situated along Joseph Kang’ethe road which is on your way to Kibera. This office is the focal point for service deliveries especially on matters concerning enforcement, compliance, environment and disaster management. The other side of Upper Hill which includes the Ngong Avenues and Community are under Dagoretti North Sub– County in Kilimani Ward.

This year, UHDA and the Sub– County joined forces to improve Upper Hill through street clean ups. While the efforts have been worth while, several challenges have been cited which include inadequate Resources, especially human resource. Woodley ward is big and there are less than 30 people employed (most of them elderly) to sweep the ward everyday, as result most of the areas can only be swept in a fortnight. We have raised the issue with City Hall and will be keenly following up to have it addressed. Capitol Hill police station also serves as the Kibera Sub– County police.

Illustrative diagram indicating the devolution in a County

4 | UHDA NEWSLETTER

The Informal Trade

One of the greatest challenges of urban development in developing nations is the emergence of informal traders.

According to Dr. Deden Rukmana, a lecturer in the University of Nairobi, the growth of the urban informal sector is nourished by the influx of migrants from rural regions surrounding urban agglomerations in search of work. With the formal sector unable to accommodate such large numbers of workers, the infor-mal sector becomes the primary source of employment. Without the economic opportunities generated by such activities, the poor would certainly become a larger burden for the urban authorities.

Informal traders or hawkers as they are commonly known are one of the biggest challenges facing many County Governments in Kenya. Nairobi County has had its fair share of this challenge and efforts to mitigate have not been successful.

Upper Hill has for a while enjoyed relatively low issues with the informal traders. This owing to the fact that we have always written to Nairobi City County to conduct operations to remove them. One of the most

successful operations conducted was early this year when the informal structures at the junction of Hospital and Kenya road were removed. Plans are now underway to reclaim the space by landscaping it as we seek other sustainable solutions.

Dr. Rukmana sites that the informal and formal sector should be able to co-exist in an environment that is well managed and organized. But currently the demand of informal traders has caused a strife between authorities and the formal sector. The informal sector recognises the law of demand which describes the relationship between quantity demanded and the price of product. We therefore cannot ignore the fact that the

existence of informal structures is mainly based on unmet demand.

Although Dr. Rukmana’s views are correct, the co– existence of informal and formal trade in Upper Hill is contentious. Informal trading in Upper Hill is fuelled by the lack of enough affordable eateries. As an Association, we have emphasized that property owners need to allocate space in their premises for canteens and cafeterias that provide affordable meals for their tenants and employees. This way the demand for the informal eateries will decrease and therefore discourage informal trading outside properties.

Nairobi City County has in many forums acknowledged our concerns, unfortunately, the response rate has been slow. Nonetheless, we remain relentless in ensuring that Upper Hill is free from informal trading.

An informal trader at the corner of the roundabout

UPPER HILL ROADS

METAMORPHOSES

Elgon roundabout in 2016

Mara road in 2014

Elgon roundabout in 2014

Mara road in 2016

Hospital Road in 2016

6 | UHDA NEWSLETTER

UHDA 2016 HIGHLIGHTS

JANUARY

EC Meeting with CS Transport & Infrastructure

UHDA Capitol Hill Police Refurbishment Project

FEBRUARY

Phase 1 of Upper Hill Roads Inspection

Issuing of UHDA membership certificates

MARCH

Auditing of Accounts

UHDA meeting with KURA

APRIL

UHDA Stakeholders Forum

NTSA Meeting with UHDA

OCTOBER

NCC street clean up

NOVEMBER

KARA Business Expo

DECEMBER

Shooting of Upper Hill marketing video

MAY

UHDA meeting with Nairobi Water and Sewer

Company

UHDA Meeting with Nairobi City County

JUNE

UHDA Security Session

JULY

UHDA Brainstorming Session

AUGUST

UHDA Meeting with NCC Executives

SEPTEMBER

Upper Hill feature on the Daily Nation

UHDA meeting with NTSA

UHDA Brainstorming Session

NCC workers sweeping Hospital road

In Partnership with:

SEALINK HOLDINGS

KIAMBERE MANAGEMENT

BRITISH HIGH

COMMISSION

EUROSWISS LTD

MENNO HOLDINGS

MASTO DEVELOPERS LTD.

SHARUD

INVESTMENTS

LTD

UHDA MEMBERS & PARTNERS