Ex-tenants to get 336 units in Buxton II

Former Buxton tenants have welcome the decision of Lands CS Alice Wahome to ensure they are allocated 336 units in the second phase of the Buxton Point affordable housing project.

The tenants also hailed the Tenant Purchase Scheme that is set to be introduced for the 180 tenants in Phase 1 after a long push and pull between them and the developer.

Housing PS Charles Hinga in a meeting with the Senate Committee on Roads and Housing committed to put into writing the TPS, where the former tenants will be paying rent and eventually own the units they will be allocated.

“This is the good news I bring to the former tenants of Buxton estate. I was one of them. That TPS will be issued to the 180 former tenants,” Nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi said on Sunday.

She spoke at a meeting with the former Buxton tenants at the ACK Bishop Hanningtone Institute in Buxton.

“My message to those involved is, we would no longer sit and watch as public land is given to private investors. What happened to Buxton should not and will not happen to Mzizima, Likoni, Changamwe, Tudor and Khadija estates,” Abdillahi said.

In a letter dated April 25, Wahome said 336 former Buxton tenants will be prioritised in Phase 2 of the Buxton Point project, which began in February 2025.

“My ministry reaffirms its commitment to ensuring that 336 former Buxton tenants are prioritised in Phase 2 of the Buxton estate housing project, as per the Senate’s recommendations and His Excellency the President’s directives,” Wahome wrote to Buxton Tenants Welfare Association deputy secretary general John Tsuma.

“My office will engage with the Mombasa governor’s office and the project developer to consider your allocation on priority basis and expedite the completion of Phase 2.”

To safeguard the interests of the former Buxton tenants, the CS has directed the Housing and Urban Development department to fast-track alternative housing options under the National Government Affordable Housing Programme.

“This is open to interested members. Eligible members will receive guidance on accessing units within Mombasa county but of close proximity to Buxton,” Wahome said in the letter.

The affordable housing programme closest to Buxton is the 2,000-unit Mzizima estate whose construction was commissioned by President William Ruto on November 2, 2023.

Tsuma said although they are happy with CS Wahome’s commitment, they still doubt the ownership of the 1,800 units in Phase 1 Buxton Point.

They said those owning the units in Phase 1 are tycoons living in Dubai, Qatar and Canada, yet the affordable housing programme is meant for poor Kenyans.

“We want to see the list of the beneficiaries of the Buxton Point Phase 1. They keep telling us all the units are sold but they are not,” Tsuma said.

Senator Abdillahi questioned Mombasa leaders' silence over the matter and vowed to fight for the tenants, even if single-handedly.

The UDA senator said in Nairobi, Governor Johnson Sakaja has done a similar project but the county has taken 30 per cent of the units unlike the 10 per cent  the Mombasa county was allocated.

“Governor Abdulswamad Nassir, you have all the instruments of power to make right what was made wrong then. Mombasa residents are looking to you to protect them,” Abdillahi said.

Governor Nassir said no illegality will happen under his watch. Speaking at Voyager Beach Hotel on Monday, he said he is determined to ensure Mombasa residents get what they deserve in any affordable housing project that is to come up.

“She knows me better. I will not let my people suffer,” he said.

Abdillahi, a member of the Senate Committee on Roads and Housing, said the Sh300,000 that was given to each of the former Buxton tenants was not a compensation but a relocation fee, from which Sh60,000 was deducted as commitment to the new units.

On May 16, the Senate Committee on Roads and Housing will hold a meeting with Lands CS Wahome, PS Hinga and developer GulfCap at the Kenya School of Government where the public will be allowed to ask questions regarding the Buxton Point, Mzizima, Tudor, Likoni, Changamwe and Khadija estates.

GulfCap Real Estate said they will issue a comprehensive statement on Thursday.

Phase 1 of the Sh6 billion Buxton Point project has 584 units, 180 of which were to be allocated to former Buxton tenants.This never happened.

The developer, GulfCap Real Estate, whose chairman is EALA MP Suleiman Shahbal, said the former tenants were offered the units to buy and only 60 of them did. Phase 2 of the project will have 1,500 units.