Telposta Pension Scheme has moved to evict about 100 former Telkom Kenya employees from its houses along Jogoo Road, Nairobi, ending a two-decade feud over the Sh700 million property, which has been the subject of court battles since 2008.
The scheme has been engaged in a series of court cases with its pensioners over the properties sitting on a 9.566-acre until the High Court on October 17, 2024 issued the final judgment in the scheme’s favour, giving it the go-ahead evict them.
The scheme started ejecting the former Telkom employees -most of whom are its pensioners receiving monthly pensions- on Monday and continued with the exercise on Tuesday. In a statement, Telposta Scheme said it planned to renovate some of the houses which are currently dilapidated in order to lease them at current market rates and sell others which had been marked for disposal.
“The board of trustees of the scheme plan is to regularise all the tenants and renovate the units to attract higher rents for the pensioners and beneficiaries. The only tenants who will be spared are the ones who will have paid all outstanding arrears and signed a tenancy agreement,” it stated.
It said that the former employees continued stay in the property without paying rent had occasioned the scheme a Sh154 million loss of revenues, even as it accuses some of them of sub-letting the houses at higher rates to other people, but still not remitting rent due to Telposta Scheme.
The scheme accused the former employees of harassing and arm-twisting it, managing to live in the houses without paying rent for two decades.
“The former employees of TelKom Kenya Limited have since 2008 been in court harassing and arm-twisting the scheme, trying to force the pension scheme to enforce void sale agreements,” it noted.
The houses comprise 17 blocks of flats with 57 1-bedroom houses, 132 two-bedroom houses and nine, three-bedroom unit and attract a monthly rent of about Sh6,000 for two-bedroom units.
Telposta Scheme CEO Peter Rotich said the scheme plans to implement projects ranging from renovation of dilapidated houses to sale of some of the plots, to boost its revenues.
“There are many projects that we want to do in order to improve our liquidity position. We want to dispose of those properties in order to make the scheme liquid and enhance pensions. The others that we don’t sell, we will renovate them and get better rent that is in line with market rates,” he said.
Disputes over the property started as back as 2003 after the defunct Kenya Post and Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC)- which was later split to form the Postal Corporation of Kenya- PCK and Telkom Kenya- transferred parcels of land and property to Telposta Scheme for purposes of leasing out and disposing of, to be able to pay the defunct KPTC’s pensioners.
Majority of the pensioners had been living inside the houses which served as staff quarters and never moved out even after transfer of the property to Telposta Scheme.
After transfer of the properties from KPTC, Telposta Scheme started selling the houses in 2003, with first priority given to the pensioners who still occupied the houses then. Some took the offer but others did not and the houses were sold to the public.
The scheme says that by 2008, it had sold 69 flats and transferred titles to buyers, but 129 were not sold.
During the same year, majority of the tenants who did not manage to buy the houses moved to court to bar Telposta from ejecting them, which started legal battles that culminated in the judgement delivered this month, giving the scheme the go-ahead to take over the property.
Other than the corridors of justice, the former KPTC employees have attempted to secure their stay through political avenues, including in March 2024 when they sought an audience with impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to intervene on the matter.
In the final judgment on October 17, 2024, the High Court affirmed a 2022 judgment by another court, which declared Telposta Scheme owner of the property and declined to compel it to transfer the houses to the pensioners, without the latter paying agreed sale amounts.
“The plaintiffs (pensioners) being in breach of the contract for non-payment of the purchase price and failure to pay rent, it is the finding of the court that the plaintiffs’ suit is unmerited,” the High Court ruled.
The pensioners’ appeal did not sail through, after it was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in March last year.
Mr Rotich said that the Scheme now plans to sell some of the properties since its property holding is 83 percent, against Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) requirements for pension schemes not to have property holdings above 30 percent of their assets.
The scheme accuses the pensioners of dishonesty, for fighting to stay in the houses without paying rent, and still expecting monthly pension payments.
“There are plots which we sold 17 years ago and the Trustees gave titles. The people who bought those plots since 2007 have never had a chance to have vacant possession, which is their right,” Mr Rotich said.
The scheme notes that some of the tenants moved to up country and have been sub-letting the houses, earning rent from them.
“The value of the Units (Jogoo Road and Elgeyo Marakwet Flats) affected by this ruling is over Sh700 Million as at June 30, 2024 Valuation with an expected monthly rental income of Sh3 million (since they are paying way below market rates and their dilapidated state) once regularisation and eviction is carried out,” the scheme said,” the scheme said.
