15-minute cities: Are they answer to Nairobi’s perennial congestion problem?

As the Ministry of Health updates Kenyans on the country’s infection status, segregating the spread of the virus by neighbourhood when discussing the country’s capital, Nairobi’s urban planning is continually called into question.

With drainage problems magnifying into full-blown floods when it rains, and the dwindling size of green spaces for recreation, shouldn’t Nairobi quickly embrace a solution that relocates its population into its serene outskirts to assure them of a better quality of life?

Proximity to CBD

The construction of 15-minute cities promising proximity to the central business district could be the answer to this question as several other cities around the world seem to have applied it with success.

Why is such a development important to the evolution of Nairobi’s urban history? In a journal article published in 1990, William F Banyikwa wrote of Nairobi’s “Signatures of Four Generations of Urban Planning”, where he mapped the growth of the city centre from its bare, Wild West origins, to urban planning designed to respond to matter such as population density brought about by rural-urban migration.

From 342,764 people in 1963 to about 1.4 million people in 1990, Banyikwa’s foreshadowing of a problem that would come to affect the nearly 4.8 million residents of Nairobi today couldn’t have been more precise.

“Master planning in Nairobi only suggested relative minor amendments, including widening of narrow streets, providing parking slots and shifting bus stops around in response to safety considerations, rather than improving the efficiency of the layout,” he wrote.

It is this ‘lack of foresight,’ he argued, that has led to the problem of congestion, which is characteristic of life in Nairobi as a city.

Over 30 years since the publication of that article, the problem of congestion has escalated, and continues to plague the country’s capital. Living or working in Nairobi can be suffocating – the streets are crowded, walk ways, put aside for pedestrians, have been occupied by hawkers who display their wares. Thanks to the congestion, cases of pickpockets and muggers are rampant, making the city and its environs unsafe.

Essential services

While public planning has risen to the occasion by applying the same tactics Banyikwa criticised, private developers have looked West to find remedies such the 15-minute city, a design that is intended to improve the efficiency of movement and save time for city dwellers. T

he design, developed by Professor Carlos Moreno, a scientist and university professor, sought to ensure that the proximity of essential services such as schools, hospitals, malls and offices was a 15-minute walk or bike ride away, for longer trips, from one’s home within an enclosed area, conserving the environment in the process.

The model comes with many benefits, all drawing from the fact that residential areas are not separated from places work, retail outlets such as supermarkets and malls, all connected by quality infrastructure. The idea decentralises city life and services and lends more life into local areas across the city.

Tatu City

In Kenya, Tatu City was among the first locales of this kind to develop, though it is in the style of a special economic zone with residential developments within it. Tilisi Developments, a project about 30 kilometres from Nairobi’s CBD, is pegged to be the first 15-minute city of its kind in Kenya.

“It’s defined as this ideal geography where most human needs and desires are located within a travel distance of 15 minutes by walking or cycling,” explains Ranee Nanji, Co-CEO of Tilisi Developments. As she elaborates, urban planning around the world is centred on how fast a person can get from point A to B.

“What the 15-minute city talks about is that where you live in the city is much more important. The philosophy of the concept is basically ‘live local and cut down on unnecessary journeys towards a higher quality of life’,” she adds.

Already in existence

Globally, cities of this kind are already in existence, with examples ranging from Bogota’s Barrios Vitales to Paris, where a key pillar of the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo’s successful 2020 re-election campaign was founded on ‘hyper-proximity’ 15-minute city concept. The concept has also been lauded by C40, a coalition of cities tackling climate change, who have looked into the concept as a Covid-19 recovery strategy for cities worldwide, observing that the pandemic has changed the way we work, move, shop and interact with each other, including our neighbours.

From the perspective of climate change, the 15-minute city model manages to limit emissions within its locale, prioritising green and sustainable options for the transport of its dwellers.

Nairobi’s Parklands neighbourhood can be said to have adopted this concept ahead of this definition. As urban designer Edwin Kabugi of Geomaestro Consult Africa explains, areas such as Parklands and towns such as Thika are examples of mixed-use developments in action, where the economy of the area is localised and access to the city centre is guaranteed within a matter of minutes. Developing such cities in the outskirts of Nairobi, however, poses a different set of problems.

“The linkages to the city, for instance, need to be very good to allow for an adequate flow of movement,” Kabugi points out.

Bottleneck road networks such as the Thika Superhighway contraction in Pangani, where eight lanes later converge into two, have proved problematic for residents of Thika who commute to Nairobi on a daily basis.

Reduce car emissions

The concept of the 15-minute city, he says, could reduce vehicular emissions significantly if city governments applied the principle of the concept, which prioritises pedestrians over motorists with a streamlined public transport system in and out of the city.

“Nairobi could very well also become a 15-minute city,” he adds.

Tilisi’s location off Limuru Road boasts of serenity with accessibility to the CBD guaranteed within 30 minutes. Should more cities of its kind pop up in the outskirts of Nairobi, what other problems should these developments consider?

“Changing the land use may end up destroying the environment and may tamper with the base where we get resources, for instance,” Kabugi argues, pointing out that most land in the outskirts provides agricultural resources to city dwellers.

“However, it’s a sustainable direction to take,” he notes. Not only would this concept improve the health and wellbeing of the residents within their confines, but the idea could also improve the environment as a whole.

From a social perspective, Tilisi’s project seeks to reinforce the themes seen in the development of these cities, where amenities are standardised and accessible to all residents within the city, regardless of their income.

The availability and access of food, for instance, has been at the fore of the development’s ideals for the application of this blueprint. One of the ways they have sought to accommodate this idea of an inclusive community is through mixed density residential arrangements.

The cost of high-density housing begins at about Sh 4.4 million for an apartment, while a villa in Tilisi Views, their high-density offering, ranges between Sh23.5 to Sh37 million.

Housing diversity

“This is one of the pillars of a 15-minute city — housing diversity,” Nanji says, and adds, “The beauty of living here is that no matter the income level, you will have the same access to Tilisi’s amenities and quality infrastructure.”

The C40 coalition has compiled resources that narrate the viability of 15-minute cities, providing guides for those looking to create their own. In their article on building a complete neighbourhood, they emphasise the need to “bring priority services, parks and amenities to every neighbourhood, focusing first on the most undeserved areas.”

Plans to expand green spaces and provide essential and cultural retailers with targeted support are included in this consideration. This, they write, will ensure equal distribution of resources among dwellers of various backgrounds in a way that seeks to guarantee ubiquity in a social sense. If the concept has worked in other countries, there isn’t any reason why it shouldn’t here, is there?

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