The affordable housing project in Pangani, Nairobi.
A title deed for 5.2 acres of land where the Pangani affordable housing project is located has disappeared from the Nairobi City County government.
A report presented to the Nairobi City County Assembly by the Planning Committee in early December shows that the title deed belonging to the piece of land where the county government project sits is "unknown", with county executive officials unable to answer questions about the ownership of the piece of land.
“With regards to the status of ownership of the title deed of the estate and in whose name is the title deed, attach proof, it was reported that the title deed for parcel of land where the Pangani estate sits is still unknown with the county executive unable to explain the custody of the title deed,” reads the report tabled before the county assembly.
This is despite the fact that in April 2023, the county assembly passed a motion to allow the private developer of the Pangani affordable housing project, identified as Teknofin Kenya Limited, to use the title deed to secure an undisclosed loan from Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) to complete the project.
The private developer has refused to honour invitations from the Nairobi City County Assembly to provide county representatives with details of the housing project.
The county executive, led by Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, had passed a resolution allowing the private developer to use the county title deed as collateral for the loan to complete the housing units.
However, the move was later halted by the Environment and Lands Court in Milimani following petitions by pressure groups.
The report also reveals that the title deed of Jeevanjee Estate Limited, where the county government is undertaking another affordable housing project, was used by a private developer identified as Jabavu Village Limited to secure a Sh1.9 billion loan from National Bank.
This is not the first time Nairobi City County has given away its assets as collateral for a loan.
In 2012, the defunct city council lost access to a 10.13-acre piece of land on which the Mariakani estate is located.
The land was taken to settle an outstanding debt of Sh4 billion owed to the LapFund.
The debt was incurred after the defunct city council failed to remit statutory deductions from its employees' salaries to the pension fund for several years.
The estate, comprising 240 three-bedroom units, is now owned by LapFund.
Efforts by the then Nairobi governor Evans Kidero's administration to claim a stake in the 50-year-old estate proved futile after the courts gave LapFund the green light to take over the property to recover debts.
The Pangani Housing Project is a public-private partnership (PPP) programme undertaken by the Nairobi County Government and launched by then President Uhuru Kenyatta on June 30, 2020.
