Works on Ruto house delayed over high costs

The award of a tender to refurbish the official residence of Deputy President William Ruto has been delayed after bidders quoted above the projected budget of Sh100 million.

According to a top Public Works official, the government contemplated shelving the repairs after the Sunday Nation broke the story last month but later decided to scale down the budget to about Sh75 million.

The tender for repairs was restricted to 10 companies who collected the bid documents on July 5. It was then estimated that the repairs would be completed by end of August after which the residence would be handed over to the Deputy President’s office.

A new construction timetable gives the winner of the tender five months to complete work from the time the winning bid is announced.

According to tender documents, the sitting room, main lounge and bedrooms will now have wooden floors while the reception area leading to Mr Ruto’s office will be carpeted. The flush doors will also be removed and replaced with mahogany doors.

Alterations will also be done to the perimeter fence of the 12-acre residence.

The Deputy President’s office on Saturday said the tender had been shelved because of the high cost of repairs, and works only restarted after the Lands, Housing and Urban Development ministry whittled down the budget.

In a recent TV interview, Mr Ruto rejected the huge repair bill because the previous contractors had been paid over Sh400 million. He also revealed that about Sh45 million was recovered from a contractor who had not finished the job.

According to the DP’s office, ministry officials had initially proposed Sh272 million for repairs that entailed converting some rooms in the house into offices to cut down on government expenditure of renting private buildings for visitors.

A report by the Government Protective Security Office, which is in charge of security of government buildings, stated that the residence’s entrance lacked stop barriers and recommended their erection plus the installation of speed bumps and bollards.

Electric fence

“The three gates to the residence lacked protective barriers for a VIP. The perimeter fence is too low to effectively prevent access into the compound and the electric wire fence is not functional,” reads part of the report.

The report further indicated that there was no telephone operator to filter calls or a CCTV surveillance system in the compound and building.

The history of the house has been mired in controversy since Day One. Construction began in 2005 when Mr Moody Awori was vice-president.

At that time the government considered building the residence in Lavington or Muthaiga before settling on land in Karen that initially belonged to the military.

In 2006, a tender was floated with a projected budget of Sh179 million; it was won by Dimken Kenya. 

It was projected that construction would be completed the following year, but work stalled, and Dimken Kenya was dismissed for non-performance after being paid Sh70 million.

A new contract was later awarded to Italbuild Imports for Sh383 million. 

The residence was completed in September last year and handed over to then Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka.

On November 15, President Mwai Kibaki officially opened the house. Kalonzo was expected to move in but he opted to use only the office space.