Nairobi MCAs turn against residents in Mariakani estate duel

President Uhuru Kenyatta, left, meets soccer legend Joe Kadenge at his home in Mariakani, Nairobi, on January 8, 2016. Mr Kadenge died on July 7, 2019. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The committee has also recommended that the county government should “immediately stop collecting rent.

  • Mariakani estate is the home of soccer legend Joe Kadenge.

  • City Hall transferred Mariakani to Lapfund in 2012 to settle an outstanding debt of Sh1.4 billion.

  • The Local Government ministry approved the debt swap through a letter dated November 1, 2012.

The quest by residents of Mariakani estate in South B, Nairobi, to get justice over transfer of ownership of their houses has been complicated by the County Assembly Accounts Committee’s decision to ignore a court order and okay a controversial deal entered in early 2013.

The deal saw Nairobi City Council swap the 240 housing units located on a 10-acre plot with a loan it had taken from the Local Authorities Provident Fund (Lapfund).

In 2015 the residents moved to court, arguing that the move was unprocedural and obtained a court order directing that residents continue paying their rent to the county government.

A report by the auditor-general also poked holes on the transfer that saw the houses swap ownership over a Sh2.1 billion debt owed by City Hall to Lapfund.

SUPPORT CASE

The court process is yet to be exhausted but this did not stop the county assembly’s committee from filing a report last week that essentially glosses over the concerns of the auditor-general, the residents and also the affidavit of Nairobi governor Mike Sonko, which he had filed as a senator to support the resident’s case.

“The county government should not lay any claim against Mariakani Estate since the property was properly transferred to the Lapfund as part of the settlement of the debt owed to the pension fund,” declared the MCAs.

The committee has also recommended that the county government should “immediately stop collecting rent and should allow the fund full possession of the property in order to forestall unnecessary litigation and to safeguard the retirement benefits of county government employees.”

The auditor-general in a special probe sought by the Assembly had noted that the memorandum of the transfer of the estate is dated March 18, 2013, but by that date, the council was non-existent in law.

MARIAKANI ESTATE

Those who signed on behalf of the City Council were Mr Roba Duba who was the town clerk, but by that date he had already left City Hall and had been elected MP for Moyale.

Mariakani estate is the home of soccer legend Joe Kadenge. It is in one of these houses that President Uhuru Kenyatta, accompanied by First Lady Margaret, had visited him in January last year.

City Hall transferred Mariakani to Lapfund in 2012 to settle an outstanding debt of Sh1.4 billion. The swap was recommended and approved at Council Special Finance meeting on August 10, 2012 for the council to have access to Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF).

The Local Government ministry approved the debt swap through a letter dated November 1, 2012. The transfer was executed on February 18, 2013 and the title of the property registered in favour of Lapfund on April 3, 2013.

The High Court had, in a ruling delivered in April 2015, directed the residents to continue paying their rent to city until the case was determined. The case has been in the corridors of justice since then.

LAPFUND

 In their suit, the residents argued that the mayor, the town clerk, the chairman of the finance committee and the head of legal affairs signed a transfer and lodged it with the registrar of land purporting to transfer the estate to the Lapfund. The transfer fell in the second phase of the transition period. This period is when county governments were being created which required any transaction to have the sanction of the National Treasury, the Transition Authority, the Commission for Revenue Allocation, and the Ministry of Local Government, which sanction was never granted.

Lapfund, through its CEO David Koros, opposes the suit on the grounds that the representatives of the Mariakani residents are in office illegally. He says they recognise the officials who were in office when the transfer was done in 2013.

STRANGE TWIST

In 2016, Dr Robert Ayasi, who was the acting county secretary, in his reply to the court stated that the transfer was above board.

In 2016, Senator Sonko had sought to be enjoined in the suit as an interested party. He supported the residents.

But in a strange twist, his own county secretary had in January written to the tenants asking them to be paying rent to the pension fund despite the court order.

The case comes up for mention on May 28.