“Code compliant” is the easiest claim in Kenyan construction to make and the hardest to check. So here is the whole list: every rule a Chimbuko plan is measured against, what it is set to, where the number comes from, and — the part most pages leave out — what these checks do not cover.
Rules are held in county code packs. The pack that applies depends on where you are building, because counties do not agree with each other. Nairobi, Kiambu and Kajiado each have their own; where a rule is national, all three carry the same value.
The rules that stop a plan
These are errors. A plan that breaks one is not finished drawing, and you will see the violation on the canvas with the rule cited next to it.
- Ceiling height — 2 400 mmHabitable rooms are drawn to a clear height of at least 2.4 m. Source: NCA Residential Guidelines §H.3.
- Bedroom area — 7.5 m²Every bedroom is at least 7.5 m². Source: NCA Residential Guidelines §H.5. Note the number: this is a floor, not a target. Our own 3-bed bungalow draws bedrooms well above it, because 7.5 m² is a room you can sleep in, not one you want to live in.
- Natural light and ventilationEach habitable room must have an openable window onto an external face. A bedroom that can only be ventilated through another room fails. Source: NCA Residential Guidelines §H.8.
- Plot coverage — 60% or 50%The building footprint against the plot area. Nairobi allows up to 60%; Kiambu and Kajiado 50%. Sources: Nairobi City County Zoning Regulations Schedule 3; Kiambu County Physical & Land Use Development Plan; Kajiado residential zoning practice.
- Septic setback — 3 mSeptic tank and soakaway sit at least 3 m from any plot boundary. Source: Public Health Act (Cap. 242) siting practice. This one moves buildings more often than people expect on a narrow plot.
- The setback envelopeEnclosed structures sit wholly inside the approved setback lines. The envelope itself comes from your zone schedule, not from us — see the limits below.
The rules that warn
These do not stop the drawing. They appear as warnings because the right answer depends on your brief, your budget or your county officer, and a plan that overrides them can still be perfectly sound.
- Living area — 11 m²Good-practice guidance rather than statute. Source: NCA Good-Practice Guidance §G.2.
- Door width — 800 mmInternal doors at 800 mm clear width, from the accessibility guidance in Kenya Building Code Part 8. Worth holding to even when nobody in the household needs it today.
- Glazing — 10% of floor areaGlazed openings of at least a tenth of the habitable floor they light. Source: Kenya Building Code Part F.
- Doors open from circulationHabitable rooms are entered from a hall or lobby, never through another bedroom, and stair flights carry no room doors. This rule exists because a set can pass every dimensional check and still be a house you cannot walk through.
- Open structures in the setback stripUnenclosed carports and pergolas in a side setback need county consent, and practice varies. Get the consent before you build the slab, not after.
Three things a code check cannot do
This matters more than the list above, because the gap between “checked” and “approved” is where projects lose months.
- It does not set your setback distancesThe rule we enforce is that the building sits inside the envelope. The envelope's actual dimensions — how far back from the road reserve, how far off each side boundary — come from the zone schedule for your specific plot. We check the geometry against the envelope you give us; we do not invent the envelope.
- It is not an approvalA county officer approves buildings. A code pack is our reading of published guidance, dated and versioned, and the pack itself says so: obtain the authoritative instrument from the county authority before submission. Anyone who tells you software approved their plan is describing something that did not happen.
- It does not cover structureNone of these rules say anything about foundations, slab design, beam sizing or soil. That is a structural engineer's work and it carries a separate stamp.
Why we publish the numbers
Because a compliance claim you cannot check is just a badge. Every rule above has an id, a value, a severity and a citation, and they are the same ones the drawing engine reads — the client-facing sheet and the internal gate cannot disagree, because there is only one list. When a pack changes, it gets a new version and a note saying what moved and why.
Coverage today is Kenya: a national baseline plus Nairobi, Kiambu and Kajiado county packs, with more added as they are verified. If your county is not on that list, we will tell you rather than quietly applying a neighbour's rules.