Protecting key rooms in an historic building for Nairobi City County Assembly
Nairobi City County Assembly is the legislative arm of the Nairobi county government responsible for all legislative business within the Kenyan capital city. The Assembly plays host to a total of 124 hon. Members of Nairobi County Assembly charged with oversight, legislation and representation. The public body is charged with providing various services to residents in the Kenyan capital city including urban planning, citizen welfare, local business innovation and budgeting. The County Assembly is located on the northern wing of the City Hall building, an historical and architecturally-significant building constructed in 1939 with a clock tower standing 165ft high and a 14-storey City Hall Annex added in 1981.
Historical significance added complexity
As the existing fire safety system at City Hall neared the end of its life, Nairobi City County Assembly service board faced an urgent need for an upgrade. However, safeguarding the building presented unique challenges due to its historical and protected nature. This meant that conventional cabling and routing were not feasible, particularly in areas like the Plenary Chambers, committee rooms and two data centres, all adorned with period-specific cladding and other artefact finishes. However, the Assembly leadership wanted to have the best possible solution for fire detection and protection.
Blending innovation and preservation
With a decade’s worth of experience, Salto was able to tackle the challenge of providing robust fire protection that worked with the City Assembly’s aesthetic. The installer chose Kentec’s Taktis and K-Mesh solutions as the core of its wireless fire detection system.
At the heart of the system is the Taktis control panel, a modular, addressable fire alarm solution designed for flexibility and ease of use. Taktis is a powerful and sophisticated addressable fire alarm control panel that’s packed with features to improve fire response times and awareness. Its modular design allowed Salto to adapt the panel to the City Assembly’s exact needs. A large colour touchscreen display provides simple and intuitive operation of the Taktis panel, with configurable information displayed for each user. The advanced cause and effect rules within Taktis mean it can be configured for different triggers such as automatically closing doors when a fire is detected in a specific area.
To counter any power disruption, multiple redundancy levels are incorporated into Taktis, with backup microprocessors that eliminate possible single-point failure. Even if the touchscreen display fails, Taktis will continue to operate.
These features provide the Nairobi City County Assembly with the reliability needed to maintain critical city operations.
A single point of truth
The K-Mesh wireless fire detection system ensures robust communication and reliable performance across the protected rooms within the Assembly with support for smoke detectors, heat detectors and manual call points. The KM–WL8-TRH wireless translator module interfaces with a fire alarm control panel loop, maintaining continuous communication with all of the wireless devices deployed across the Plenary and committee rooms and data centres. Each wireless device within the K-Mesh network autonomously selects the KM-WL8-EXP expander module offering the strongest signal path, creating a self-healing network.
The system is completed with Kentec’s wireless single output module KM-WL8-OUT, wireless manual call points KM-WL8-CP, optical smoke detectors KM-WL8-O, and wireless sounder KM-WL8-SND. Combined, these elements form a cohesive network designed to deliver rapid, accurate alerts while maintaining the City Hall’s original historical features.
Comprehensive fire protection
The combined expertise of Salto and Kentec has resulted in a fire safety solution that balances cutting-edge technology with heritage preservation.
Ondiek Jorum, technical director at Salto said:
“Kentec was an obvious choice when we were tasked with finding a robust, reliable wireless solution. With a range of different wireless systems that can be easily integrated, Kentec provides the Assembly with the protection and real-time alerts it needs.”
“Kentec provided us with a complete wireless solution that offers the comprehensive coverage that we needed while remaining cognisant of the unique rooms and building façade of the City Hall. With the Kentec fire protection system now in place, we have peace of mind that our Plenary Chambers, committee rooms and data centres are secured against fire risk,” explained the director of security services Mr Francis Kivila at the Nairobi City County Assembly.
For more information, visit www.kentec.co.uk.
