Joho assures Mzizima tenants of good relocation package

The Mombasa county government and the residents of 60-year-old Mzizima estate have finally come to an agreement on reviewing the relocation fee offered.

The 114 families, majority who are county employees, had complained that Sh150,000 given to them as relocation fee was very little.

Two years ago, they had been promised Sh576, 000 as relocation fee.

On Tuesday, Governor Hassan Joho said the Sh150, 000 compensation fee will be reviewed upwards during a meeting with the tenants at a hotel in Nyali.

The residents are asking for at least Sh300, 000. Their neighbours at Buxton estate were given Sh240,000 relocation fee.

According to the tenants, their houses are at the creek, facing the Indian Ocean, therefore the value of that land is more expensive and should be given a good package.

Joho said by next week, a new amount will be released after a discussion with the developer.

He said that the negotiations were based on what would be of the best interest to the developer and the people of Mombasa.

“We have to look at this issue from a broader perspective. We do not want to make it expensive because if you burden the developer with high cost of compensation eventually he will just transfer it to the purchaser,” he said.

He was speaking during a consultative meeting between the tenants, the developer and the county government at Nyali Sun Africa Beach Hotel.

Joho said that the project was geared towards providing affordable housing units for Mombasa people.

He urged the residents not to look at the issue as an opportunity to make money, but rather as a journey of becoming homeowners.

“We want to cap it at an affordable rate to make sure that we get it right. We are not looking at becoming landlords, rather we want to create an environment where everyone can become a homeowner.” 

Once completed, the Mzizima Estate housing project will have about 1,780 units of one bedroom (600 units), two bedrooms (580 units) and three bedrooms (600 units).

The tender of the project was awarded to Jabavu Village Limited, a real estate developer company, which is also undertaking similar affordable housing project in Nairobi.

Speaking at the meeting, Jabavu chairman Abdinasir Ali said that they are going to meet over the weekend to review the relocation plan and announce the new amount by next week.

Ali said that they initially had an agreement with the tenant leadership concerning the relocation fee, but since the governor had agreed with the tenants to review the fee, they will have to engage further.

“Our aim is to ensure that the tenants are well taken care of and are satisfied. We will also give them a discount and offer them a payment plan,” Ali said.

The project, according to his projections, was going to cost them about Sh5 billion and the units would be ready for occupancy by June 2023 if the project takes off by January 2021 as planned.

“The project will take about 18 months to complete, if tenants vacate by December, then by January we should be able to have a date with the President to lay the foundation stone so that work can start."

He also said that talks were still going on to fix prices for each unit, saying that the houses were going to be pocket-friendly with a three-bedroom apartment going for between Sh4.2 milllion to Sh4.5 million.

The estate will also have a management office to take care of amenities, including landscaping, garbage collection and security, among others.

“We don’t want to create a slum, we are going to do a modern development where there will be service charges to be paid by owners of the property," Ali said.

The houses are also going to be environmentally friendly as the developer plans on putting up solar lighting systems and LPG gas pipelines in every house.

“The houses are going to be bigger compared to any other housing units. A three-bedroom house, for instance, will cover an area of 75 to 77 square metres and two bedroom 60 square meters. 

Last month, residents of the estate held a meeting in which they appointed Azgarali Hassanali as their new chairman to lead negotiations for their relocation fee.

The former office agreed on Sh150,000 instead of the Sh576,000 agreed on two years ago.

They expressed their dissatisfaction with a word of mouth vacation notice issued by the former leadership asking them to go to the county offices and collect their cheques and vacate the houses by December.

The meeting was attended by Mombasa Woman Representative Asha Hussein, Haki Afrika officials, MP Abdulswamad Nassir and Mombasa Senator Mohammed Faki.