THE FAST AND ANARCHIC DEVELOPMENT OF DIANI-UKUNDA

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CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE DIANI-UKUNDA ZONING PLAN MAP 

AND RELATED REGULATIONS

(And here for a quick background note by the World Bank on zoning)

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Diani is a fast-changing part of Kenya. As one of Kenya’s key tourism assets, it has experienced high levels of investment and development adjacent to its legendary beaches for decades.

Nearby Ukunda town has recently been experiencing rapid growth, even faster than Diani in recent years. Catering to Mombasa city’s spill-over population and Diani’s hospitality sector, Ukunda is estimated to have a population of over 70,000.

However, there are virtually no guidelines in place to direct this growth, of both tourism in Diani and urban development in Ukunda. This means that growth is occurring anarchically. Whether this growth will be to the benefit of the tourism industry and the population of Diani-Ukunda is therefore left fully to chance. This is a risky development strategy.

PLANNING DIANI-UKUNDA’S FUTURE

Concerned with the risk inherent in an unplanned growth model, a group of private citizens launched an initiative to support the local authorities in Kwale (the district’s capital) to develop regulations to direct future developments in Diani and Ukunda. These would chart out different zones for specific types of developments, and accompanying regulations that guide developments in each zone. To undertake this work, this group of residents drew on the voluntary advisory services of a retired urban planner from the Netherlands, through the Dutch organization PUM (the Dutch acronym for Senior Netherlands Experts).

In parallel with this effort, and responding to a mandate in Vision 2030 (Kenya’s national planning document) to develop a resort city in Diani as one of three new tourism hubs, the Department of Physical Planning (DPP) in the Ministry of Lands launched an initiative to develop a spatial plan for the Diani area. This plan would guide land use for an area covering 210 km², as well as 400 nautical miles of an exclusive economic zone.

LAUNCHING A JOINT INITIATIVE

On learning about each others’ initiatives, the volunteer-led zoning team and DPP’s spatial planning team decided to merge their respective initiatives into a single zoning project, under DPP’s leadership.

Under this new public-private initiative (PPI), the private actors who launched the zoning plan will continue to provide input and technical support to DPP’s planners in developing the zoning plan. In particular, the deep experience of the PUM expert will continue to be drawn on.

While extensive stakeholder engagement forms the foundations of any good zoning initiative, this level of deep public-private collaboration is a first for Kenya. Drawing on different perspectives and skill sets, this innovative model will allow the joint public-private team to develop a set of regulations that are deeply grounded and owned by the target community, from large developers and hoteliers, to smaller-scale kiosk owners and fishermen.

This initiative is led and implemented by a partnership of Aref Adamali Consulting, Netherlands Senior Experts (PUM), South Coast Residents Association (SCRA), and the Department of Physical Planning (DPP), Ministry of Lands. All private participation is voluntary.