Speaking during the signing ceremony on Tuesday, Governor Evans Kidero stated that the project is expected to provide affordable housing to low income earners in Nairobi/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 22 – The Nairobi County Government has kicked off the Urban Renewal Housing Project with the signing of two Sh14.3 billion projects in Bachelors/Jevanjee and Pangani Estates.
Speaking during the signing ceremony on Tuesday, Governor Evans Kidero stated that the project is expected to provide affordable housing to low income earners in Nairobi.
He indicated that construction is expected to begin immediately and is set to be completed in the next 24 months.
“Today we are signing two projects Lot 1 which was tender number 97 Bachelors/Jevanjee estate which was awarded to M/S Jabavu Village at a construction sum of Sh9 billion,” he stated.
He further revealed that seven sites have been earmarked for redevelopment as pilots for the project and will comprise 10,200 housing units.
“In the project phase which is the 15,000 housing units, there will be five others to be awarded soon. Number 98 Ngong Road, No 100 Pangani estate, Uhuru Estate, Suna Road and the total cost will be Sh54 billion with an addition for infrastructure,” he said.
He stated that this is the first phase of a project that will see its old houses pulled down.
Most of the houses are in the Eastlands area and, according to County Executive Committee member for Planning and Housing Tom Odongo, the project will see over 100,000 housing units built to accommodate for 650,000 people.
These tenants currently occupy the old 17,000 housing units built by the defunct City Council of Nairobi.
In the first phase of the project, dubbed The Eastlands Urban Renewal project, new housing units will be built in the open spaces in the estates of new and old Ngara, Pangani, Jevanjee Bachelors, Uhuru and Woodley.
Odongo said the tenants would not be evicted from the old houses.
The tenants, who pay rent to City Hall, will continue making the payments once they occupy the new houses.
But other houses will be mortgaged at a lower cost than the current market rates.
Odongo, however, admitted that there were no funds for the project but said the money should be available by April.
A similar project had been started by former Housing Minister, Soita Shitanda but it never took off.
In the Eastlands area, City County has only 9,557 units on 2,000 acres of prime land.
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