Nairobi Development Plan System: The Nairobi Metropolitan Services has said that 18 buildings were approved by hackers who jammed the Nairobi County’s online development plan system.
According to Major General Mohamed Badi who is the director at NMS, the hackers included former staff of the Nairobi County.
“The hacking paved the way for illegal building approvals to be made and there were 18 illegal approvals done when the system was hacked into, forcing us to suspend it,” said Badi. “The hackers are not strangers or outsiders but retired county staff who had access to the system and are now working with outsiders to do illegal approvals. It’s unfortunate that desperate city residents landed in the hands of these conniving dealers and got illegal approvals.”
Badi made these revelations after the NMS suspended approval of development plans in Nairobi after the Quick Response (QR) code system, which is part of the e-construction development plans application system used for the application of building plans and construction permits, was hacked into.
NMS to kick out car wash businesses out of Nairobi
The online QR code system provides a unique identification of all approved architectural and structural plans, eliminating the need for property developers to submit hard copies of development plans for stamping upon approval.
“City residents have suffered in the hands of conmen but unfortunately as NMS we will not allow a single building to go up without the proper approval by the technical committee on urban planning. We shall go for it and bring it down,” he said on the Nairobi development plan system.
