A buyer’s guide to the law that decides what can be built on a plot, and who gets to say so
Most people call it “the Physical Planning Act.” It hasn’t gone by that name since 2019. The statute now governing what you can build, where, and under what conditions is the Physical and Land Use Planning Act, No. 13 of 2019, which repealed the old Cap 286 and folded planning and land use control into a single law. The rename matters less than what changed underneath it: wider public participation, a longer list of developments that need sign-off before a single block is laid, and county governments holding the actual decision.
The Act’s stated purpose is broad by design; it sets out the procedures and standards for development control regulation of physical planning and land use, alongside a framework meant to ensure that investment in property benefits the communities it sits in.
What “development control” actually covers
Development control is the mechanism through which a county decides whether a specific piece of construction, subdivision, or land use change is allowed to go ahead. The objectives, as set out in the Act, are to keep physical development orderly, put land to optimal use, carry out approved plans as written, protect the environment, and promote public safety and public participation.
A county’s development control powers include:
These powers sit with the county precisely because Section 56 of the Act assigns development control to county governments, not to national ministries. Where you build is a conversation with the county your plot sits in, not a single national office.
What needs a permit before you touch the ground
The 2019 Act dropped the old “Class A / Class B” grouping and instead lists specific developments that require development permission. If your project falls into one of these categories, county approval has to come before work starts, not after:
The Act also draws a firmer line between commercial and industrial use, which settles a question that used to trip up applicants filing under the wrong land-use category.
Change of use: the step that catches buyers off guard
Land zoned for one purpose does not become available for another simply because a buyer intends to use it differently. Converting agricultural land to commercial use, for instance, is a formal change-of-use process, not a formality on a title deed.
The applicant advertises the intended change in two widely circulated newspapers, giving the public 14 days to raise objections. If no objections stand, a registered physical planner files a PPA1 application with the county, attached to a project brief that sets out the development plan and how competing interests in the property were considered.
For a buyer, the practical implication is timing: change of use is a planning process with a public-comment period, not a same-week administrative fee. Due diligence on a plot should confirm current zoning and use classification before agreeing a purchase price, not after.
Zoning and land use plans set the boundaries before you apply
Development permission is decided against a backdrop of land use development plans, prepared at national, county, inter-county, and local levels. These plans are meant to be integrated, and together they form the basis of how land in a given area is meant to be used. A plot’s zoning- residential, commercial, mixed-use, industrial, agricultural- comes from this planning layer, and it is what a county checks a development application against.
Special planning area designations, such as the Mukuru Special Area Zone, illustrate how a plan can set bespoke development conditions for a specific area: density limits, permitted uses, and infrastructure requirements that apply on top of the general county plan.
Building without permission
The Act is direct about the cost of skipping this process: development permission must be obtained before work begins, and a developer who proceeds without it risks criminal sanctions and demolition of the unapproved works.
Regulators treat approved-but-not-followed conditions the same way as no approval at all. Extra units added beyond what was approved, encroachment into a road or riparian reserve, and ignoring building lines and setbacks are the recurring reasons cited when county governments order demolition, even where a project once held a valid permit.
What this means for a buyer or investor
None of this is a reason to slow down a genuine purchase. It is a reason to ask specific questions earlier than most buyers think to:
A title deed confirms ownership. It does not confirm that a structure was built where, how, or as high as it was approved to be. That confirmation sits with the county’s development control record, and it is worth requesting before, not after, a sale agreement is signed.
