Green buildings are relatively new in the construction industry, especially in Kenya and serious questions regarding their maintenance beg answers as little has been documented. This study therefore, sought to assess the impact of maintenance factors on sustainability of green buildings in Nairobi County. A survey to investigate; maintenance problems, maintenance policies, maintenance strategies and maintenance management tools/techniques in relation to sustainability of green buildings was delimited to a sample size of 25 LEED certified buildings in Nairobi County and 86 registered green building practitioners. The survey achieved 53% response rate and data analysis was carried out using a quantitative approach. The findings indicate that, the maintenance strategy variable seemed not to have a significant relationship with the outcome variable, hence it was dropped from the model. The final logistic regression model shows that, the odds for sustainability of green buildings are 1.44, 3.72 and 2.89 times higher when there is proper management of maintenance problems, adequate maintenance policies and proper maintenance management tools/techniques respectively, holding all other factors constant. The results highlighted the need of a paradigm shift in maintenance management of green buildings hence, the proposed framework in figure 2 that will enable maintenance personnel to execute their work in an efficient manner. From an academic perspective, the findings contribute to the pool of knowledge available in the area of green buildings maintenance.

Rainwater harvesting provides an important alternative source of water in household buildings which increases water security in urban areas. However, high energy cost consumption by the rainwater harvesting systems results in higher management costs which may derail the investment viability of these systems in households. This prompted this study to establish ways through which the management cost of rainwater harvesting systems can be minimized in household buildings. A survey of 200 households from Greenspan, Komarock, Utawala, Kileleshwa and Runda in Nairobi County was undertaken as well as data on the type of rainwater harvesting systems, their operation and maintenance cost collected using observation checklists and questionnaires. The findings indicated that rainwater harvesting typologies 1, 2, 4 and 5 had their water pumped from first-level storage to the second-level storage then supplied to usage points by gravity. Whereas, typologies 3 and 6 had their water moved manually and by gravity respectively. On annual operation cost, 100% of households with typology 3 and 6 spent no money whereas, 100%, 75% and 70.6% with typology 4 and 5, 1 and 2 respectively spent Ksh. 1 -5000. On annual maintenance cost, 100%, 93.7% and 77.8% of households with typology 5 and 6, 3 and 4 respectively spent Ksh. 1 -5000 while 25% and 22.2% of households with typology 1 and 2 respectively spent Ksh. 5000 -10,000. Advanced typology 6 with one-level storage point supplies rainwater to all parts of the household by gravity. This eliminates operation costs spent on energy consumption due to pumping of water, thus minimizing overall management cost spent on rainwater harvesting systems in household buildings. How to cite this paper: Shikuku, J., Munala, G., Mugwima, B., Muhoro, T., Gremley, A., Nyakundi, V. and Ali, M. (2020) Assessment of Rainwater Harvesting Reticulation Systems to Reduce High Management Costs in Household Buildings. Natural Resources,11,[156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163][164][165][166][167]

Human waste can become an eye-sore when not properly disposed off. It is estimated that every human generates about 300g of human waste per day. In Kenya's largest informal settlement, Kibera -with a population of over one million people -the phenomenon of the "fly toilet" is a daily scourge to life here. Umande and its partners have built 57 bio-centres in Nairobi. Bio-centres have turned the mountains of odorous human waste from a problem into an asset. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how innovative solutions can be made to tackle sanitation challenges and turn envisaged waste into a resource. A survey of the constructed bio-centres in Kibera was made to assess the versatility of the bio-centres. It was revealed that the bio-centres in Kibera have collected 60,000kg of human waste and turned it into biogas. They have further improved access to proper sanitation to the community and built the capacity of community-based organizations to design, plan, construct, manage, and market ecological sanitation services. These bio-centres have reduced methane emissions to the environment are definitively scalable renewable energy source option in the informal settlements.