The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) now plans a multibillion-shilling mixed-use complex on a highly sought-after controversial parcel of land it owns in the Nairobi central business district.
The project is planned for construction on the State corporation’s 3.85-acre plot at the corner of Uhuru Highway and Kenyatta Avenue, which has remained conspicuously vacant for decades amid political intrigue and twists and turns that have, over the years, sucked in various State agencies and private investors, including billionaire India businessman Mukesh Ambani.
NSSF Managing Trustee and Chief Executive Officer, David Koross said in a disclosure that the project would be implemented on an engineering, procurement, construction and finance (EPC+F) model, where contractors handle a project from start to finish and arrange financing.
Under the EPC+F model, contractors handle the project in its entirety, from the initial design and engineering plans to construction and completion, and also arrange financing for the project, through tie-ups with financial institutions.
“The project location at the corner of Uhuru Highway and Kenyatta Avenue and plot size offers the procuring entity and the EPC+F partner the opportunity to undertake an iconic development that would be a landmark for Nairobi City’s Central Business District,” NSSF said in a call for bids by firms interested in the project.
“Development options may cover all property sectors including residential, commercial (office, conferencing, and retail), hospitality as well as specialised uses,” it added.
Mr Koross said the planned project is part of a strategy to unlock value from idle assets owned by the fund, which held Sh400 billion in investments as at August 30, 2024.
“In line with objectives, we have identified perennially underperforming assets that are due for development with a view to unlock their highest potential and returns,” he said.
The NSSF plot, which is currently vacant but was previously used as a make-shift carpark, has been at the centre of intrigue over the years that even saw some private firms unsuccessfully attempt to buy it.
For instance, in 2016, Mr Ambani sued the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) seeking a refund of Sh55 million stamp duty paid in a botched deal to buy the NSSF land. The status of the suit against KRA is not clear.
The billionaire Indian businessman had planned to buy the NSSF plot for Sh1.3 billion but later pulled out after it emerged that the parcel was smaller than the size indicated in the title.
Mr Ambani had planned to build a 21-storey hotel on the parcel of land opposite the city’s Laico Regency hotel but later moved to the Westlands suburb where he built Delta House after the NSSF deal collapsed.
Records show that the NSSF plot was owned by the central government in the 1970s and was initially set to be given to the now defunct East African Airways to build terminal facilities and a hotel to enable passengers to book their flights there and enjoy accommodation services there if they wished. The airline was also to be given an adjacent parcel of land for the project, where the present Barclays Plaza sits.
The government, however, shelved the plans in 1971 after East African Airways ran into financial problems that later saw it collapse.
Apart from the plans to hand the plot to the airline, there was also a flurry of proposals by private investors fronted by top government officials, ministers and wheeler-dealers in the late Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi regimes, to put up hotels on the prime land over the decades.
Several parties including the Kenya Tourist Development Corporation, hospitality chain Holiday Inn, Japan’s Chori and the Ataka Group, were among those fronted to the government officials and fixers as holding a potential to build hotels on the NSSF land.
