PS Angote denies irregular acquisition of NHC houses

Lands Permanent Secretary Dorothy Angote has denied acquiring two houses under the National Housing Corporation scheme irregularly.

Ms Angote said she followed the right procedure to acquire a house in Kakamega and pay for another that is still under construction in Nairobi West.

“The allegations that I applied for the houses outside the normal time table and procedure does not arise, is totally malicious and meant to cast aspersions in my person,” Ms Angote said.

Speaking to the Nation at her office in Nairobi, Ms Angote displayed receipts showing she paid Sh200 for the application form for the housing units in Kakamega and Nairobi West on November 3, 2009.

The NHC acknowledged receiving 10 percent deposit for the Sh7.5 million housing unit in Nairobi West and Sh2.65million (Kakamega) from Ms Angote on November 6, 2009. NHC notified Ms Angote that her application for the Kakamega house on January 5 was successful and she accepted the offer on January 24, 2011.

The PS said NHC advertised the houses for sale in November 2009 and that “I perused the advert very carefully and I subsequently bought the application form for Sh200 just like other Kenyans".

“I went through all the process. As far as I know the houses were under construction. The adverts were open ended. Nothing in the adverts said who should apply and who shouldn’t,” Ms Angote said.

The NHC units in Nairobi West traded for Sh5.75 million for type A, Sh6.5 million (B), Sh7.5 million (C) and Sh6.8 million (D).

Ms Angote said the Kakamega housing unit was the worst investment she has ever made “as the return is not there".

Although buyers of the Kakamega units parted with more than Sh30,000 per month, rent for similar houses in the area stands at Sh10,000.

Housing minister Soita Shitanda has since said some buyers of the Kakamega NHC houses were asking for refunds after realising they had no economic value.

On Tuesday, Ms Angote said even civil servants and majority of Kenyans could not afford the NHC houses as they are sold at current market value like other private developers.

“The Nairobi West units are not finished to date and by the time they are finished they are going to be more expensive.  I don’t know why people are saying we are now super landlords. Our money is tied there,” Ms Angote said.

The Sunday Nation had named Ms Angote as among top government officials who had been allocated NHC houses outside government procedure.

The paper said most of the beneficiaries of the controversial allocations began paying for their units in May 2011, many months after ordinary Kenyans had settled their payments at the end of 2009

Apart from Kileleshwa, several other schemes were said to have been marked by allocations outside the normal procedure.

Ms Angote said she had done nothing wrong and gave the Nation a letter from the NHC indicating she successful applied for the units.

“Further to your expression of interest in the above scheme, we are pleased to inform you that your application was successful,” the letter said in part.

Civil society organisations, however, say the allocations were irregular because they came well after the housing allocation committee met on December 17, 2009 and finalised the list of successful applicants for the 105 units.