Urban Planning and the Law in Kenya

This article discusses the nexus between urban planning and the law in theory, and the role that law plays in the urban planning process in Kenya. The theoretical discussion focuses on the use of law as a regulatory mechanism and concludes that no universal theory of the role of law in the urban planning process can be identified. The discussion on law and urban planning in Kenya, on the other hand, is an attempt to apply theory to the Kenyan situation. In Kenya today, there exists a private and a public legal regime for the regulation of land use in urban areas. The private legal regime is based on common law, the public legal regime is based on legislation. The discussion consists of an analysis of statutory provisions and their application to the demands of planning imperatives. The conclusion reached is that law has an important role to play in urban planning in Kenya, although its use has been largely arbitrary and inappropriate