Pinnacle Tower, Nairobi
One of the directors of the real estate firm that used affordable housing land to get a bank loan of Sh1.9 billion received the Head of State Commendation amidst an ambitious plan to construct the tallest building in Africa.
In 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta awarded Abdirashid Mohamad Jabane, one of the three directors of Jabavu Village, the third class Moran of the Burning Spear.
At the time, the company had announced an ambitious plan, dubbed the Pinnacle Project, to put up the continent’s tallest building in Nairobi’s Upper Hill area.
Jabavu Village is at the centre of the latest controversy on a title deed belonging to land on which the county of Nairobi was to build low-cost housing units.
A search at the registrar of companies shows that the other individual listed as a director of Jabavu Village, the real estate arm of Hass Petroleum Group, is Abdulkadir Ahmed Hussein, who has one ordinary share.
Jabavu Village’s company secretary is Shantilal Khimji Shah.
Mr Abdulkadir is also a director of the Dubai-based Hass Petroleum Trading where he has been responsible for the Horn of Africa region and new business development for 11 years and eight months, his Linkedin profile shows.
The majority shareholder of Jabavu Village is Dubai-based Jabavu Investments which has 999 ordinary shares.
Dubai has strict secrecy laws which make it difficult to know the beneficial owners of companies.
During the recent Nairobi County Assembly Departmental Planning Committee meeting, it emerged that two title deeds for the affordable housing projects in Pangani and Jeevanjee were missing.
First, it was reported that the former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko had the title deed for the Jeevanjee Estate. However, it later emerged that the title deed was used as one of the securities to acquire a Sh1.9 billion loan from the National Bank of Kenya.
The Nairobi City County and Jabavu Village entered into a partnership to undertake the renewal and development of Bachelors Jeevanjee Estate in a joint venture agreement signed in March 2019. Nairobi County was the developer of the housing project while Jabavu was the developer.
The process of obtaining the loan was initiated in December 2022 and was fully processed in May 2023, but the project is still in limbo.
Documents indicate that the National Bank of Kenya processed banking facilities for Jabavu Village, which is the borrower, in January 2023.
The county had claimed that the overall construction completion of the Jeevanjee Housing Project is estimated at 46 percent and the developer aims to complete the entire project by September 2026.
“The developer will first complete all affordable housing by December 2025 and complete market units by September 2026,” said Patrick Mbogo, the County Executive Committee (CEC) member for Built Environment and Urban Planning.
Jabavu Village is not new to controversies and is currently facing numerous legal challenges over alleged debts and breach of contracts arising from the Pinnacle Project.
The Pinnacle Project was a mixed-use development consisting of four basements, a 5-storey mall, an approximately 45-storey hotel building, and a 68-storey commercial/residential building as per documents filed in court.
When complete, there were a plan to have a viewing deck on the 69th floor of the Pinnacle enabling people to see Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro, the investors of the project claimed in a media interview.
The owners of Jabavu Village Limited, the firm that used title of a land for affordable housing to borrow a bank loan of Sh2 billion, had a false start
The company registration documents show that Jabavu Village was started in November 2008 and has secured three loans since August 2020.
The first loan of $3,200,000 (Sh412,576,000) was secured on August 13, 2020. Another loan of Sh70,375,000 was secured in November 2022.
