Kileleshwa developers to pay for sewer damages after Dutch Embassy petition
By Aloys Michael, December 21, 2025Kileleshwa developers will bear the cost of damages after Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration directed them to pay for losses to public infrastructure.
This follows complaints that blocked water and sewer lines led to flooding and raised environmental concerns.
The complaint was filed by the Embassy of the Netherlands, claiming that construction near their premises had obstructed sewage and water flow, raising environmental and health concerns.
“Discharge of wastewater from the construction site into the storm drain that flows into the river poses both environmental and public health concerns. We respectfully request that the relevant authorities review these matters and take appropriate action to prevent environmental hazards and maintain public safety,” the Embassy said.
Nairobi County urban development and planning chief officer Patrick Analo Akivaga has said that enforcement notices have been issued and developers who damaged public infrastructure have been ordered to pay for repairs.
“We have received the Netherlands embassy complaint. Our team is on the ground, and we have issued notices to those who blocked sewer lines. Developers responsible will bear the cost of repairs,” he said on Sunday, December 20, 2025.
The embassy also raised the issue of the destruction of walkways and sewer lines by the ongoing construction.
Residents from Dikdik Gardens in Kileleshwa also raised the same issue, adding that the raw sewage was contaminating the Kirichwa Ndogo River.
They urged the National Construction Authority (NCA) and the National Environmental Authority (NEMA) to pause the construction until the issue was resolved.
“We’d like to ask the county, as well as agencies like NCA and NEMA, to put a pause on the construction until they address the issues that residents have raised here in Dikdik and the wider Kileleshwa area,” said Joe Muigai, a resident.
The embassy’s alarm over the destruction of government infrastructure was a part of the wider pattern of high-rise buildings posing risks to Kenyans. In Peponi Road, Westlands, Nairobi, the construction of a 13-storey building was halted after it developed cracks on its pillars, leading to the evacuation of the neighbouring residents.
Earlier in April 2025, the Parklands Residents Association obtained a court order against developers who had destroyed roads, lanes, and old residential houses and felled trees at City Park Forest.
Residents of Lavington/Mbaazi Avenue filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of Kenya in November, claiming that a 16-story project’s deep excavations endangered the structural stability of neighbouring four-story townhouses that shared subterranean rock formations.
Homeowners on Kilimani’s Kindaruma Road reported in September that vibrations from heavy machinery on a nearby “beacon-to-beacon” construction site that shared a wall with their houses had caused cracks in the walls of their bedrooms.
In response, Nairobi City County opened a six-month amnesty in December, allowing developers to regularise unauthorised buildings while warning that structures on public land or violating court orders faced demolition.