Ngara affordable housing stalls for 8 years

Nairobi City County MCAs have demanded a probe into the multimillion-shilling Ngara housing project undertaken by the county government in partnership with a private developer, amid growing fears that hundreds of homebuyers may have been defrauded of their savings.

The ward representatives, led by nominated MCA Hellen Okello, say investors who committed millions of shillings to the project are yet to receive their houses nearly eight years after construction began, raising serious questions about accountability and oversight at City Hall.

“These are people who live in rental houses and some of them took loans. They had put aside their life savings to buy the houses. They are already servicing these loans, yet they do not have houses,” Ms Okello said.

Her statement, tabled before the county assembly, seeks to compel the planning committee to summon officials behind the project and explain the prolonged delays, as well as outline concrete steps to ensure buyers finally receive their units.

At the centre of the dispute is an affordable housing development launched in February 2018 at the former Bachelors Jeevanjee Estate in Ngara where 1,800 units were to be constructed through a partnership between Nairobi City County and Jabavu Village Limited.

Under the arrangement, the developer was to finance and build the project while the county provided the land with completed units to be shared between the two parties. The developer was issued with a title deed, which he used to secure a Sh1.9 billion loan from a local bank to finance construction.

The project, initially scheduled for completion within two years, has since become a symbol of delays and unmet promises.

Investors, many of them members of Taqwa Savings and Credit Cooperative, say they have collectively paid Sh387.5 million, which is about 67 per cent of the total cost, yet remain without homes.

The group says it halted further payments after noticing that the pace of construction did not match the steady flow of funds they had already committed to the project.

One hundred investors had targeted two-bedroom units priced at Sh2.5 million each, while another 100 opted for three-bedroom units costing Sh3.5 million which in many cases were financed through loans.

According to their agreement with the developer, the houses were to be handed over by December 15, 2022, with the contractor expected to vacate the site by October 31 the same year.

That deadline passed without delivery. A later assurance that the units would be ready by February 2026 has also not been met deepening anxiety among buyers.

According to Shariff Hussein, a prospective homeowner, many of those who bought the units have been left to suffer on their own.

“So many families have been broken due to this project. Properties have been auctioned because of loans taken. We are afraid, and we suspect we are being conned,” he said.

Their frustration has driven them to seek intervention from multiple institutions, including Parliament and the Affordable Housing Board under the Ministry of Lands, but their petitions have yet to yield a resolution, leaving the matter now before the county assembly.

The developer has attributed the delays to a combination of external shocks, including the Covid-19 pandemic, global supply chain disruptions and rising construction costs, particularly the sharp increase in steel prices linked to the Russia-Ukraine war. Election-period uncertainty was also cited as a contributing factor.

Nairobi County Secretary Godfrey Akumali had last year indicated that Blocks 3 and 4 could be ready for occupation by early 2026, with full completion projected for June 2027.

However, a recent visit to the site shows a project still under construction and far from the certainty investors were originally promised when they committed their savings.

“We visited the site and what we saw was disheartening. We need action against the developer,” Ms Okello added.