•The case is a hot potato especially for three candidates who have an interest in becoming the next Mombasa governor.
•Depending on the judgement, the case may potentially build or destroy chances of those supporting and those opposing the project.
March 3 will be a significant day for politicians seeking to succeed Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho.
It is the day judgment over the Buxton housing project case will be delivered.
The case is a hot potato especially for three candidates who have an interest in becoming the next Mombasa governor.
They are Suleiman Shahbal, who is the developer associated with Buxton Point Apartment Ltd which is the firm undertaking the project, Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir, who is the area MP and has declared interest in being governor in 2022, and former Senator Hassan Omar, who is opposed to the project.
The project is worth Sh6 billion and involves the demolition of the 502 units currently at Buxton estate, for construction of 1,860 new apartments.
The Buxton estate units, owned by the county government, include 150 units for the county staff and another 352 units for rentals.
Currently, they are one and two-bedroom units for which they pay Sh2,800 and Sh3,662 respectively.
Once complete, the new one-bedroom units will go for Sh1.8 million each, two-bedroom for Sh3 million and the three-bedroom units will go for Sh4.2 million.
There will also be bedsitters which will be going for less than Sh1 million.
Twelve residents of the Buxton estate filed a petition seeking to stop the redevelopment of the houses, a project dubbed "Urban Renewal and Redevelopment of Old Estates within Mombasa County".
The tenants argue that the developer will cause them suffering making them pay as much as three times what they are used to paying in rent.
They say the units will be sold at prices they cannot afford and thus will lose them to richer people.
Judge Sila Munyao declined a request by the tenants, through their lawyer Ngibuini Gikandi, to physically visit the estate, saying it is not necessary at the moment.
He, however, said he will deliver his judgement on whether the case will go on or not on March 3.
Depending on the judgement, the case may potentially build or destroy chances of those supporting and those opposing the project.
Shahbal will gain an upper hand should the project be allowed to go on and succeed.
He says the project will create much-needed jobs for around 300 youth in Buxton and its environs.
This, he says, will go a long way to addressing the unemployment problem that bedevils the county’s youth, who instead turn to crime and other vices to eke out a living.
Shahbal says the project will see youth equipped with technical skills in various categories like masonry, plumbing, wiring, among others, skills which the youth will gain because the developer will train them for free.
Already the first batch of 60 youth have been trained at the National Industrial Training Authority on practical skill including plumbing, masonry, mechanical, electrical, carpentry, folk lift and interior design. If the project is allowed to go on, it will be a blow to Nassir and Omar, who are opposed to it saying it is being done irregularly.
Nassir says he is not opposed to the project but how it is being done. He says there was no public participation over the project, a claim Shahbal refutes. A three-day public participation exercise was conducted at the Tononoka Social Hall from September 3 to September 5 last year.
“In my opinion, no one opposes development. What we oppose is the unknown. There is no adequate arrangement for the tenants and they are worried,” said Nassir on January 2. He said twice the residents called for meetings with the developers but they were denied the opportunity. He said only about 10 per cent of the residents are comfortable with the project. The rest are not.
The MP said Shahbal needs to differentiate between business and politics and sit down with the Buxton residents to iron differences out. But Shahbal insists he did all due diligence as required by law and humanity.
The former Mombasa Senator and DP William Ruto’s ally says Mombasa will have many investments including Special Economic Zone, Free Port, Blue Economy, among others which is lucrative to those powerful people.
He, however, says Mombasa residents will defeat all the plans they have and take over the management of their own affairs. However, Shahbal dismissed Omar as a desperate man who only looks for fights so he can raise his profile.
Other politicians who have declared interest in the top county seat but are yet to publicly voice their opinion on the Buxton project include Kisauni MP Ali Mbogo, Joho’s deputy William Kingi and former Mombasa county secretary Francis Thoya.
Political observer Mwakuja Mrombo says the judgement of the case will be significant for not only Shahbal, Nassir and Omar but also Joho himself. Joho, Mrombo notes, still has ambitions to be the Coast region political kingpin and the project will be like his legacy project.
In 2013, he mooted a similar project worth Sh200 billion involving all the 10 housing estates owned by the county.
However, Shahbal opposed the project then saying there was no public participation and that the project had proposed 15-storey buildings, which he said would only make the units vertical slums. Mrombo said should the project get the green light, it will be Shahbal’s flagship project which he will use to campaign for election‚” Mrombo said.
Apart from Buxton which sits on 14 acres of land, the county also owns Changamwe, Khadija, Tom Mboya, Tudor, Kaa Chonjo, Likoni and Mzizima estates. Mombasa has an annual housing deficit of 21,000 units, according to Haki Yetu Organization, which is the convener of Coast Land Non-State Actors.
Haki Yetu’s John Paul Obonyo says the annual demand for housing units in Mombasa stands at 25,000 units, against a supply of 4,000 houses. And with 72 informal settlements in the county, Obonyo says Governor Joho’s administration should be working more with the national government to ensure the deficit is covered.
It is this deficit that Shahbal pledges to cover given a chance. However, Mrombo says, should the project fail to kick-off, Nassir and Omar will be taking credit for ‘stopping an attempt at displacing poor residents for the rich’. “Nassir and Omar will be claiming they fought for the people of not only Buxton but throughout Mombasa when tycoons wanted to displace them and render them homeless”
He noted such a scenario could spell the end of Shahbal’s political career. “It will be hard to reinvent himself particularly considered he opposed the project in 2013 when the county wanted to undertake the project,” says the political analyst.
He says Omar, who is sold to the Hustler Nation movement, will use this to further the narrative that the rich want to take advantage of the hustlers.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris