Shafting continues… nyoro anatumiwa kucheza ngware.
Sometimes it can be costly to have a rich neighbour. They can cause you misery – and lock you out of your home – too, as hundreds of prospective homeowners have discovered in Kiambu.
The investors are in distress after construction of houses worth at least Sh3 billion on Kenyatta Road in Kiambu County stalled amid claims that an influential family with large tracts of land in the neighbourhood is unhappy the projects are not posh enough.
Collectively, Willstone, Banda and Liason homes are building 881 units comprising three-bedroom bungalows and maisonettes ranging between Sh3.5 million and Sh6 million. Many of the investors have paid for their units in full.
However, construction has stalled since August last year, when the county government imposed new restrictions, although the authorities had issued all the necessary approvals, said the developers.
And they alleged external influence from a powerful family that owns land in the area and which, they claim, has branded the developments “slums” that will devalue property around them.
Kenyatta Road is a motorway in Gatundu South and passes through the ancestral home of the founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in Ichaweri.
Less than a decade ago, the stretch from Kenyatta Road as you exit Thika Road to Rain Hotel was not much inhabited, but with the good road network and proximity to both Nairobi city and Thika town, developers saw an opportunity to build affordable houses.
Row with county
But a row is brewing between the developers and Governor James Nyoro’s administration after the county government stopped the commercial constructions in August last year, even though it had given the developers building approvals.
Mr Samuel Kamau of Liason Homes says the new restrictions have put developers on a collision course with their clients, who were expected to settle into their homes from late last year.
Mr Nyoro, while responding to the issue recently on a local television station, said the new restrictions are a matter of policy that stopped all subdivisions of land – and construction that sits on land – below 50 feet x 100 feet or on 40x80.
Mr Ejidio Kinyanjui is the managing director of Willstone Homes, building residential homes on Kenyatta Road. The houses are stand-alone maisonettes that are about 70 per cent complete, and should have been finished by last December.
Business nightmare
“Doing business with Kiambu County is a nightmare. Truth is most of the land we have built commercial houses on is ancestral land and sits on more than three acres. How then can you bar someone from putting up houses by claiming the land is below 50x100? The county government is hiding behind compliance and the tactics have been changing from one hurdle to another,” lamented Mr Kinyanjui.
“Now some people are even constructing at night because the investors are becoming impatient, having paid everything and the houses have not been handed over to them,” he added.
The standoff has delayed completion of 141 units that were to be handed over to the owners by last December.
Banda Homes
A few metres from the Willstone Homes development is another one by Banda Homes.
Banda Homes was in the eye of the storm last year, with its investors complaining of delayed construction and handover of the houses.
The Nation found disgruntled investors checking the status of their houses.
The three-bedroom maisonettes in their hundreds remain untouched. The investors are now petitioning the national government and the county government of Kiambu to investigate the delays.
The investors claim that despite more than 750 home owners paying up to Sh6 million each for three bedroom maisonettes, the project has stalled.
Mr Stephen Kori, an investor with Banda Homes, felt there is an upper hand grounding commercial developments in the area and wants both the national and county governments to intervene.
“We are petitioning the county government of Kiambu, specifically the governor. We are petitioning the National Assembly, National Land Commission … to tell us the reason behind this, because we have a right as Kenyans to know what is happening,” he said.
Mr Clement Njau, another frustrated investor, claimed the development was stopped because an influential developer said the houses were “slums”.
“Where in this country have you seen a slum house costing Sh6 million? This is a controlled development. Look at these beautiful houses, if they were completed, would you call this a slum?” he asked.
Ruined her dream
Ms Faith Ngari says the county has ruined her dream of owning a home. She says the governor had assured homeowners that construction would resume in January this year.
Investors say their attempt to hold a meeting with the county government has been unsuccessful.
The stand-off between the developers and the county government has attracted the interest of local leaders, among them Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, who said the completion of the houses would create jobs and a food market for local producers.
He urged the county government of Kiambu to follow the law and ignore external influences in the matter.
https://nation.africa/kenya/counties/kiambu/powerful-family-leaves-sh3bn-homeowners-in-tears-3301894