Guide · NEMA environmental licences · Updated 2026-10-19

NEMA licences for building in Nairobi

Many projects in Nairobi need a licence from NEMA, the National Environment Management Authority, before they start — a block of flats, offices, a factory, a hospital, a fuel station. The licence follows an environmental impact assessment (EIA): a study of how the project could affect the land, water, air and people around it. Applications go online, on NEMA’s licensing system, ENVIS. Look at the site on Nairobi Maps first.

Check the site on the map Apply on ENVIS (NEMA)

Which report does your project need?

NEMA’s schedule of projects (Legal Notice No. 31 of 2019, under the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act, EMCA) places a project at low, medium or high risk, by its type and size. The risk decides what goes to NEMA. A NEMA-registered expert screens the project and prepares the report.

Risk	What goes to NEMA
Low risk	A Summary Project Report (SPR)
Medium risk	A Comprehensive Project Report (CPR)
High risk	Terms of reference, then an EIA study report (SR), published for public comment

Other NEMA licences a building or business may need

Licence	What it is for
Environmental audit	The check on a project that is already running.
Effluent discharge licence	Permission to discharge wastewater into the environment.
Air emission licence	Permission to release emissions from listed facilities and equipment.
Licence transfer and variation	When a licensed project changes hands, or changes shape.
Waste, chemicals, plastic packaging and others	Also applied for on ENVIS, under their own regulations.

How an application moves

Screen the project. A NEMA-registered expert reads the project against NEMA’s schedule of projects (Legal Notice No. 31 of 2019), which places it at low, medium or high risk. The risk decides the report.
Check the site. The plot, its zone, the rivers, roads and airports around it, and what NEMA has already licensed there — on the map, before a page is written.
Prepare the report. The expert describes the project and its site, consults the people and bodies it may affect, and writes an environmental management plan: how each effect will be avoided, reduced or managed.
Submit on ENVIS. The report is lodged online on NEMA’s licensing system, and its fee is paid. NEMA may also ask for printed copies of a comprehensive project report or a study report.
NEMA reviews it. NEMA reads the report, may visit the site and may ask for more information. It can accept the report, or ask for a fuller one.
The decision. NEMA issues an EIA licence with conditions, or refuses. A decision can be appealed to the National Environment Tribunal.
After the licence. Build and run the project as licensed, keep to the conditions, and keep records for the environmental audits that follow.

How long it takes

NEMA does not publish one time for every case. A summary report moves faster than a full study, which waits for its public comment period. Incomplete reports and missing documents — the title, the drawings, a change of use where the county needs one — are the usual causes of delay. Follow the application on ENVIS.

Check the site before you apply

Most of what a NEMA report describes is already on the map. Check these first:

Check	Where	Why it matters
The plot and its number	Search the map by LR, block or FR number	Every report and licence names the plot. Make sure the parcel on the map is the land the project is on.
What the zone allows	Its zone page, or tap the plot on the map	A report describes the project against the county’s planning rules: floors, plot ratio, ground coverage and use.
Rivers, wetlands and riparian land	The rivers and water bodies layers on the map	Work near a river or a wetland raises a project’s effects, and can need separate consent from NEMA and the Water Resources Authority.
Airport height limits	Airport height limits	Near JKIA and Wilson, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority can limit height below what the zone allows.
Where wastewater goes	The Trunk sewer layer, and connecting to the sewer	Into a public sewer, it is agreed with the water company. Anywhere else, it needs NEMA’s effluent discharge licence.
Who lives around it	The census population layers on the map	The expert must consult the people a project affects; the census says how many live around it.
What NEMA has licensed around it	The NEMA layers on the map	Neighbouring projects, and the emission and effluent licences near the site, are part of what the site already lives with.
The right to the land	An official search on Ardhisasa	The proponent must own the land or have the owner’s consent. Reports usually include a copy of the title.
The county’s approval	Building and planning approval	NEMA’s licence and Nairobi City County’s approval are separate. A project needs each one that applies to it before work starts.

NEMA licences on the map

Nairobi Maps carries NEMA’s licensing records for Nairobi as three map layers:

Layer	What it holds
Project reports	Summary and comprehensive project reports, terms of reference approvals and study reports, with their licence variations.
Licences and permits	Effluent discharge and air emission licences, EIA licence variations and transfers, designated laboratories, and chemical and vehicle-emission-testing licences.
Audits	Environmental audits of running projects, low risk and high risk.

Each record carries its licence and application numbers, the proponent it was issued to, the kind of licence, and the plot or LR number where the report gave one. It sits where NEMA’s licensing system drew the site — a point, a boundary or a line. A record whose report states a position far from that site is flagged, as a prompt to confirm the plot. Applications with no drawn site are not on the map.

Use them to see whether a site already has a licence, what has been licensed around it, and where the licensed sources of effluent and emissions are. They are NEMA’s records as published; NEMA’s own system is the record of any licence. The NEMA layers are add-on layers: each is bought once, on any plan, and kept — see plans and pricing.

Reading a NEMA licence number

Every licence ENVIS issues has a number starting NEMA/ENVIS/, and the letters after it say what it is — for example NEMA/ENVIS/CPR/LIC-… for a comprehensive project report’s licence. Applications have a number of their own, in the same form.

Letters	What it is
`SPR`	Summary Project Report
`CPR`	Comprehensive Project Report
`SR`	EIA study report
`EIA/TOR`	Terms of reference approval
`EA`	Environmental audit
`EDL`	Effluent discharge licence
`AQ/EL`	Air emission licence (AQ for air quality)
`VLA`	A licence variation, after the report’s code — for example CPR/VLA
`NTL`	Notice of a licence transfer
`LAB`	A laboratory NEMA has designated

Why Nairobi Maps is the first stop

Every NEMA report starts from the site: where it is, what may be built there, and what is around it. Nairobi Maps holds those facts for every parcel in Nairobi on one map — the plot by its LR, block or FR number, its zone worked out for the plot, survey plans, rivers and roads, airport height limits, census population, and what NEMA has already licensed nearby. The owner, the architect and the expert start from the same facts.

The plot, found by LR, block or FR number, or by a position — the number every report and licence names.
Its zone under the Development Control Policy 2026, worked out for the plot: floors, plot ratio, ground coverage and use.
Its setting: rivers, water bodies, roads and the census population around it — what a report describes.
Airport height limits around JKIA and Wilson, in 3D.
What NEMA has already licensed on and around the site.
The county’s half of the permission, in the approvals guides.

The whole checklist, from the title to the contractor, is in built-environment due diligence in Nairobi.

ENVIS and Nairobi Maps: which does what

	Nairobi Maps	ENVIS (NEMA)
Find the plot and its number	Yes, every Nairobi parcel	No
The zone and planning rules for the plot	Yes, worked out for each plot	No
Rivers, roads, airports and people around the site	Yes, on the map	No
NEMA licences on and around the site	Yes, as map layers	Its own records
Submit a report or an application, and pay	No	Yes
The licence and its conditions	No	Yes

Use them together: check the site here, apply there.

Questions

Do I need a NEMA licence to build in Nairobi?

Many building projects do. NEMA’s schedule of projects (Legal Notice No. 31 of 2019) lists which need an environmental impact assessment, and at what level, by the project’s type and size. A NEMA-registered expert screens the project against it and says which report it needs.

What is ENVIS?

NEMA’s online licensing system, at licensing.nema.go.ke. Since 28 July 2025 every new NEMA application is lodged there: EIA reports, effluent and emission licences, audits, waste and chemical licences, and the registration of environmental experts.

Is a NEMA license the same as an EIA licence?

For a project, yes: NEMA writes “license”, and Kenyan English “licence”. The EIA licence is what NEMA issues once it accepts a project’s report. NEMA also issues other licences — for effluent, emissions, waste and chemicals.

How long does NEMA approval take?

Who prepares a NEMA EIA report?

An environmental expert, or a firm of experts, registered and licensed by NEMA. EMCA requires it, and NEMA keeps a public register of the experts it has licensed.

How can I see whether a project near me has a NEMA licence?

Nairobi Maps carries NEMA’s licensing records as map layers, each record placed where NEMA’s system drew the site: project reports, licences and permits, and audits. Open the map at the place and switch the NEMA layers on.

Is Nairobi Maps part of NEMA?

No. Nairobi Maps is an independent map of Nairobi’s land, its planning rules and the records around them, for checking a site before you apply. NEMA decides every licence, on ENVIS.

Nairobi Maps is not part of NEMA. This guide explains the usual route under EMCA and NEMA’s regulations; requirements, fees and steps change, so confirm them with NEMA on ENVIS and with a registered expert.