Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has unveiled the implementation of a physical address system aimed to identify buildings and locations for city residents.
The physical address system will be incorporated with Google Maps to simplify navigation and delivery.It will show names of the streets and the number of properties located on them.
According to Mr Johnson Sakaja ,the Gonernor of Nairobi County , the address system will be integrated with the five administrative boroughs in Nairobi to bring amenities close to city residents.
“The physical address system will help the county government in the planning and provision of amenities for our city residents. We will engage in a mass public participation process to help city residents understand it and how they can label their businesses using the system,” Mr Sakaja said.
The system is intended to revolutionize identification of business locations as many residents have been using landmarks which often involve popular buildings and streets within city center to identify their business locations and different places within CBD.
The process of labeling all the streets in Nairobi and the properties located on these streets has already begun .This is to ensure that the exercise is completed within a short time.
According Mr Sakaja,the planned physical address system will start with the already known streets in Nairobi Central Business District (CBD).
“Nairobi is a commercial city and the system will begin with the CBD where the different streets have already been labeled. The property owners will be told the property number and the physical address system so that those businesses that are ready will go ahead with the naming of their properties for their customers to easily access them,” Mr Sakaja said..
The system is also be enforced in the informal settlements in Nairobi County where the county will use names of roads.
In some places, the county will also issue new names to streets.
The Govonor also indicated that public participation will be c done tp ensure that the names being given are already popular with the residents.
Nairobi is the second city in East Africa to implement the physical address system after Kigali in Rwanda.