NSSF’s Nyayo Estate in Embakasi. A row has erupted between the fund and the estate's association over the planned sale of a Sh400 million block of shops and houses in Nairobi’s Embakasi area. FILE PHOTO | NATION
What you need to know:
The dispute involves a recently completed four-storey building whose construction the association unsuccessfully tried to prevent.
NSSF offered 35 residential and 14 commercial units for sale in newspaper advertisements that ran on Sunday, August 3, this year.
A row has erupted between the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and a homeowners association over the planned sale of a Sh400 million block of shops and houses in Nairobi’s Embakasi area.
The dispute involves a recently completed four-storey building whose construction the association unsuccessfully tried to prevent.
Nyayo Estate Residents Association (Nera) accuses NSSF of perpetrating “a serious hoax” on unsuspecting buyers by offering residential units that don’t exist in what it describes as a commercial building.
“They have advertised the sale of (19) three-bedroom maisonettes that are non-existent,” Nera secretariat senior chairman George Ochola charged in a letter to residents.
“This is a serious hoax and (will lead to) the illegal collection of money from the public.”
NSSF offered 35 residential and 14 commercial units for sale in newspaper advertisements that ran on Sunday, August 3, this year. As much as Sh4 million was collected in non-refundable application fees for each of the earlier phases involving hundreds of units.
Mr Ochola insists NSSF has sold all 4,774 units approved for development in the housing estate adding that the workers’ pension fund would need the approval of resident-owners to build any further houses there.
However, he says: “They have arrogantly overlooked all our concerns.”
Attempts by BDAfrica.com and Business Daily to reach NSSF CEO and Managing Trustee Richard Lang’at for comment Friday were unsuccessful.
The advert stoked controversy by outlining application terms for the properties that are seen as favouring the rich.
The homeowners are also infuriated that NSSF insists on selling 16 of the new ‘Phase Six’ units as one-bedroom houses. The association says they had meetings with NSSF and the Nairobi County government in which they proposed that the disputed block to only house shops and offices.
“Single bedroom units are a complete shift from the target market that this estate was based on,” argues Mr Ochola, whose position in Nera is elective. “The challenges that go with that are obvious.”
Nera is attempting to complete the handover of the estate from NSSF, which funded the development, to the homeowners it represents to prevent what it terms “grabbing of every available (piece of land) in the name of Phase Six”.
The county, they say, cancelled a planned development NSSF had attempted last year. The association now says it may be forced to take legal action against the fund to block any further attempts to develop land within the estate.
NSSF’s advert identified 16 of the 49 units offered for sale as one-bedroom apartments priced at Sh5.5 million (about $63,000), while 19 are three-bedroom maisonettes selling for Sh12.5 million ($143,000).
Some 14 shops are on sale at between Sh4.5 million and Sh16 million ($51,000-183,000). All will be ready for occupation between September this year and May next year.
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