Residents demonstrate along Namanga Road over eviction plans. Photo/Ponciano Odongo
What you need to know:
Urbanis, the developer that took over the project from Jamii Bora Makao, said high interest rates have pushed up the mortgages, making it hard for the low-income buyers to pay.
The houses were sold to residents of Nairobi slums at Sh350,000 who signed a mortgage deal with Jamii Bora Bank.
The cheap housing model spearheaded by Jamii Bora in Kajiado has come under severe test as the low-income buyers say they are unable to repay the mortgages.
Urbanis, the developer that took over the project from Jamii Bora Makao, said high interest rates have pushed up the mortgages, making it hard for the low-income buyers to pay.
The houses were sold to residents of Nairobi slums at Sh350,000 who signed a mortgage deal with Jamii Bora Bank.
The buyers protested at Kisaju over eviction reports, blocking Namanga Road for hours. “We are worried because we are likely to lose our houses after working so hard for years to own them,” said Samwel Wahome, the group chairperson.
On Thursday, Urbanis told the Business Daily that the residents had declined to meet the developer to seek a solution.
The firm, which is developing another project with homes costing Sh1.5 million, however, said after selling the houses in 2008, it plays no role in the scheme and it’s only trying to help.
“We made a proposal to a Norwegian foundation which wanted to buy the mortgages but they {residents} refused to meet us,” Urbanis CEO Wagane Diouf said.
He said the charity group, which he did not want to name without its authorisation, intended to slash the interest payments to a bare minimum and restructure the loans.
He says the offer is still on the table because the developer acknowledges the fact that some of buyers are old women with no capacity to pay the mortgage.
“It is true we have sent auctioneers to some of the clients who have failed to pay their loans as earlier agreed. The money was borrowed; it was not a donation as some have purported,” Mr Diouf said.
The residents blame their woes on the founding organisation that helped them acquire the land after saving for years in order to build the cheap houses.
Mr Wahome said the group pooled funds to buy the land before contributing more money for the houses under the umbrella of Jamii Bora.
“Some of us worked in the project and our salaries were deducted as contributions towards the construction of the houses,” said Mr Wahome.
Jamii Bora Makao founded by Ingrid Munro transferred interest to Urbanis.
But Ms Munro said she only transferred the housing project to an investor who was willing to turn it around by supporting the less fortunate to own houses. She said the demonstrators are being used to destroy the dream of the poor to own their own houses.
“It is all politics and incitement. When we left three and half years ago, we still wanted everybody to own a house. We did not sell any portion neither did we sell the organisation,” she said.
Jamii Bora Bank had not responded to our inquiries by the time of going to press.
