Developer fined Sh500,000 for working after 5pm – VIDEO
A private developer found building a residential structure without buffers to protect the public from falling objects was fined Sh500,000 for breaching National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) license.
In default, Yahya Abdi Mohammed will serve a two years jail term.
He was handed the penalty by Resident Magistrate William Tullel of Kibera law courts after pleading guilty to charges of breaching conditions of a license contrary to the environmental impact assessment audit.
Mohammed admitted that he breached conditions of a license issued on September 15, 2021, while undertaking his project along Ole Shapara road in South C, Nairobi on March 22.
He also breached the license by undertaking the construction works past 5 pm among others.
He was charged with committing the offence jointly with others, not before the court and he pleaded guilty.
The court heard that on the material day at around 6 pm, environmental inspector Koiyet Shieni and a team of police officers attached to NEMA arrived at the site responding to an incident reported to NEMA by members of the public living near the construction site.
They found the construction of a residential unit going on and workers on site.
Shieni asked for the person in charge and Mohamed introduced himself as the person in charge and produced a license through his phone which was confirmed to have been issued by NEMA regional office at Nyayo House.
After the license was checked, Mohammed was found to have breached its conditions and was arrested immediately.
The conditions he had violated include a requirement to put up a signboard as per the Ministry of Transport and infrastructure standards indicating the NEMA reference number, failing to ensure buffers – hoarding and duct screens are installed to protect members of the public from falling objects and failing to ensure construction activities are undertaken during the day between 8 am and 5 pm.