Abstract
People’s perception of urban regeneration on circulation networks in Nairobi for Livability-a case of Nairobi Eastlands The challenge of providing pedestrian friendly circulation networks within urban areas in most developing nations faces great pullbacks emerging from the need to balance increasing demand for mobility in a growing economy and citizen mobility within a clean and safe environmental with acceptable quality of life. Nairobi east-lands is a residential area towards the eastern side of the City and is composed of residential neighborhoods for the low and middle income communities built to meet housing needs of the growing number of African urban workers in Nairobi between 1928 and 1961. In an effort to meet the rising demand for housing, the Kenyan government through a strategy termed the Nairobi Urban Regeneration programme seeks to provide conducive and liveable spaces within the ‘Eastlands’ This programme commenced with the improvement of some of the roads within the estates which has seen a drastic change in the functional and aesthetic use of this connection routes. This paper seeks to establish the impact of this improvement of urban roads circulation networks (the regeneration of urban roads within the Eastlands area of Nairobi) to include pedestrian footpaths clearly separated from the main carriageway on people’s perception to liveability-a case of Nairobi’s Eastlands. The study was carried on the ‘Eastlands’ section of Nairobi within the Residential neighbourhoods of Maringo, Ofafa, Jericho and Buruburu estate. These neighbourhoods in the past few years had roads which were dilapidated with blocked storm drains from waste disposal and blocked pedestrian circulation networks, school children were walking on the main carriage ways of most of the roads, commercial shops had been blocked from access due to the waste disposal, informal structures and trade activities were placed right at the pedestrian footpath making it difficult for people traffic flow. Data was collected by administering questionnaires to the users targeting obtaining information about their perception of the circulation networks before the regeneration and after. More data will be collected by observation methods and photographs taken to illustrate the changes experienced with the regeneration progress and comparing the changes with neighbourhoods around the world that are considered to be liveable. Key informants in the profession will be used to interpret the users’ perception as described in the photos. The regeneration has had an impact in opening up the spaces for economic activities, improvement of security with the clearance of large heaps of waste dumped along roads, improved vibrancy by enhancing use of open space and health through reduced pollution with clean drainage channels and continuous flow of storm water. The research findings indicate that with the new network; school children can walk comfortably along the footpaths, storm drainage channels are flowing freely and most economic activities along the networks have experienced vibrancy in activities. The regeneration strategies have improved liveability along the corridors both socially, economically and environmentally. With such improvement the Kenyan government has increased the potential of attracting investors on the Housing agenda initiative within this regions.
