Ombudsman Faults County Officials in Eastleigh Building Boundary Dispute
Commission of Administrative Justice(Ombudsman) chairperson Mr. Charles Dulo speaking to the press in Nairobi on February 6, 2026
The Office of the Ombudsman has faulted Nairobi City County officials over a disputed building boundary in Eastleigh, recommending prosecutions, disciplinary action, compensation, and sweeping institutional reforms after finding that a development was unlawfully approved and poorly enforced.
Presenting the findings in Nairobi on Friday, Commission of Administrative Justice(Ombudsman) chairperson Mr. Charles Dulo said the Commission had established that county officers approved and facilitated construction in violation of planning and land use laws.
“The Commission on Administrative Justice, Office of the Ombudsman, has found the Nairobi City County officials culpable of approving, endorsing and facilitating unlawful development approvals in contravention of the Physical and Land Use Planning Act 2019 and the Local Government Adoptive Bylaws Building Order 1968,” Dulo said.
The investigation arose from a complaint filed in October 2023 by Colston Investment Limited against College Towers Limited concerning a neighbouring development in Eastleigh. Colston alleged that the construction encroached onto its land, violated statutory setback requirements, obstructed light and ventilation, and involved demolition of a boundary wall, unauthorized sewer works, and dumping of construction debris. College Towers Limited filed a counter-complaint, maintaining that it had secured all necessary approvals and arguing that the existence of a public sewer way justified the building’s orientation.
However, the Ombudsman’s investigation established that the sewer line runs entirely within Colston’s private property and that its public utility function does not alter ownership or create a development buffer. Addressing the core of the Eastleigh building boundary dispute, Dulo stated,
“The presence of the sewer line was found not to alter the ownership status of the land.” Mr. Dulo further clarified that the sewer way does not convert a private land into a public land, nor does it create a development buffer upon which an adjoining landowner may lawfully rely on to relax statutory setbacks requirement.
The report also found that approvals granted by Nairobi City County were marred by serious procedural and substantive irregularities. These included premature issuance of approval letters before deliberations by the Urban Planning Technical Committee, failure to circulate applications to critical technical departments such as public health, and non-compliance with mandatory planning controls on setbacks, plot ratio, and density. Despite the issuance of an enforcement notice in January 2023 and a later revocation of approvals, construction was allowed to continue almost to completion.
On enforcement failures, Dulo said, “The Commission concluded that the Nairobi County Government failed to enforce both the Enforcement Notice and the revocation, revealing serious lapses in regulatory compliance and systematic weaknesses in oversight.”
The findings showed that county officers neither halted construction nor implemented follow-up measures, exposing deep weaknesses in development control and accountability systems.
As a result of the unlawful approvals and weak enforcement, the Commission found that Colston Investment suffered measurable material, environmental, and operational harm. The damage included destruction of boundary infrastructure, loss of privacy, interference with lawful occupation, and diminished utility of the property. The Ombudsman recommended Sh2.5 million in special damages and Sh20 million in general damages, to be paid jointly and severally by Nairobi City County and College Towers Limited within one month.
The report named several senior and technical county officials as culpable, citing negligence, abuse of discretion, and failure to enforce lawful orders. The Commission forwarded the report to the Director of Public Prosecutions, recommending criminal proceedings, while also calling for disciplinary action by the Nairobi County Assembly and the Public Service Board against implicated officers.
Beyond individual accountability, the Ombudsman identified systemic weaknesses within Nairobi’s Planning and Development Management System that allowed applications to advance despite unresolved objections. The Commission called for urgent reforms to restore integrity, transparency, and public confidence in county development control processes.
