Residents who paid for houses under Nairobi City County’s Affordable Housing Programme could finally get their units or recover their money following a 14-day intervention by the County Assembly’s Urban Planning and Housing Committee.
The committee, chaired by Baba Dogo MCA Geoffrey Majiwa, has pledged to mediate a dispute involving homebuyers, contractors and county government officials after residents complained of prolonged delays in the delivery of houses they purchased several years ago.
Speaking after meeting affected residents and contractors, Majiwa said the committee had given the parties 14 days to agree on a clear way forward and establish when the pending housing units would be delivered.
He said residents had been left frustrated by the lack of communication from county executive officials while the officials themselves blamed contractors for failing to provide clear updates on the projects.
“Residents who purchased these units are saying they are not getting clear answers from the county executive officers. The county executive officers are also saying they are not getting clear answers from the contractors,” Majiwa said.
The MCA said the committee would now step in as a neutral mediator to bring the county executive and contractors together and ensure buyers receive the houses they paid for.
He added that buyers unwilling to wait for the additional construction period requested by contractors should be allowed to recover their money.
“If they don’t want to wait for the period the contractors are requesting, we will ask the contractors to refund their money so that they can do other things with their money,” he said.
Majiwa noted that contractors had cited several challenges affecting construction, including disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cost of building materials.
He explained that construction activities had stalled during the pandemic before contractors encountered increased costs that made it difficult to complete projects under the original financial arrangements.
The disagreements, he said, had created a stalemate between buyers and contractors, with neither side willing to compromise.
The committee hopes its intervention will produce a win-win solution for residents, contractors and the county government.
However, Majiwa declined to comment on claims that some property title deeds associated with the housing projects had allegedly been used to secure loans from financial institutions.
He said the allegations required verification and that the committee would first establish the facts before making any conclusions.
On calls by some members of the public for the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to investigate the matter, Majiwa said the assembly would first exercise its oversight mandate.
“Our work is to do oversight. Until we are done with oversight, those other agencies cannot work for us. We have the capacity to do our work and when we think we need them, we are the ones to involve them,” he said.
The committee is expected to release its findings and recommendations within 14 days.
Buyers say they have waited for years
One of the affected buyers, Bishar Abdullai, said his family had invested money in the Jibanje Bachelors Housing project in 2020 but had yet to receive their house despite years of waiting.
Abdullai said several buyers had already completed their payments and even received allocations of housing units but the houses remained undelivered.
He accused the contractor of abandoning the construction site and said residents had struggled to obtain reliable information about the progress of the project.
“Seven years down the line, we have paid monies and they have even allocated houses to us. Several members, even the members here, some of them have completed their payments. But there is no housing and there is no value for our money,” Abdullai said.
He said the affected families had invested in the project hoping to secure decent homes in Nairobi but were now facing uncertainty over both their money and the promised houses.
Abdullai added that attempts by buyers to visit the site and establish the progress of construction had not yielded satisfactory answers.
The situation, he said, had pushed residents to petition the Nairobi County Assembly after previous engagements failed to resolve their concerns.
He welcomed the committee’s intervention, saying buyers were now hopeful that the two-week deadline would finally produce tangible results.
“We want either our monies or housing. There is no third way about it. We need to be recompensed or refunded our monies which we have invested in this project or be allocated the houses,” he said.
Abdullai urged the contractors and county officials to take responsibility and ensure the affected families receive either their houses or refunds.
He said the committee’s commitment to address the dispute within 14 days had renewed residents’ hopes after years of frustration.
