Plot owners to pay for multi-billion project upgrade

Plot owners of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Tassia II settlement scheme will be required to finance a controversial multi-billion shilling infrastructure upgrade of the estate.

NSSF Chairman Gideon Ndambuki made the announcement Friday while addressing members at the Fund’s AGM, marking a departure from the earlier position in which the NSSF was to foot the reported Sh5 billion bill and then recover its cash from plot owners.

The planned upgrade was at the center of controversy which saw former Labour secretary Kazungu Kambi and former NSSF acting chairman Richard Langat lose their jobs.

The Tassia estate controversy started when Central Organisation of Trade Unions Secretary-General Francis Atwoli questioned a variation of the contract cost from the initial Sh3.3 billion to Sh5 billion.

Plot owners were expected to pay Sh920,000 each to cater for the infrastructure development, survey and physical planning fees, engineering and design costs and processing of individual title deeds.

The plot owners had initially claimed in court that NSSF breached a contract when it increased the prices of the plots.

NSSF’s planned infrastructure upgrade includes a 90.4km tarmac road and lighting. The roads are to be fitted with culverts and storm water drainage system.

Mr Langat was suspended as NSSF Managing Trustee after investigations were opened against him by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), following his approval of Sh5.053 billion awarded as a tender to a construction company, China Jiangxi International Kenya, for the development of the Tassia housing scheme.

Complaints were raised by Cotu who said that Mr Langat did not have the approval of a properly constituted board to go ahead with the scheme.