- Joho has twice failed to appear before the committee to shed light on the Buxton Housing Project.
- Mombasa senator Mohammed Faki said the evictions on March 5 could have been handled in a better way.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
@Yobramos4
The Senate Roads and Transportation Committee has temporarily stopped construction of the Sh6 billion Buxton Estate housing project.
Committee chairman Kimani Wamatangi on Thursday said the project appears to have no public interest at heart.
Wamatangi gave Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho the last chance to appear before the committee after failing to do so twice despite invitation and summons.
"Is it in the interest of the people of Mombasa that the project goes on?
"We have resolved to stop any progress on the project, until such a time when the governor honours our summons and satisfactorily answers all our questions,” he added.
He spoke during a committee meeting with the Buxton petitioners, Mombasa county government officers, Buxton Point Apartment officials and members of the public at the Mombasa County Assembly.
An incensed Wamatangi took issue with Joho's absence despite summonses having been issued to him.
"We hold that the governor has absented himself from this sitting with no proper reason," Wamatangi said.
Joho was to shed more light on the project which has seen over 1,000 residents petition against the demolition of their 520 units.
Mombasa senator Mohammed Faki said the evictions on March 5, a day after a court ruling that dismissed an application by a section of the residents to stop the exercise, could have been handled in a better way.
"This kind of project will be replicated in other places, and we don't want a repeat of issues that are disputable," Faki said.
The aggrieved tenants' spokesperson John Tsuma said they are not against the project but the secrecy in which it is being implemented.
In his submission, Tsuma said they have been denied crucial information about the project by the county.
"This tender was only applied for by one company. As such it should have been declared non-responsive. It was not," Tsuma said.
Roy Katana, a resident, said he has been a tenant for over 40 years.
"We were evicted during Covid-19 times," Katana said.
He said they were ambushed by bulldozers on a Saturday morning.
They were each paid Sh240,000 as relocation fees.
"The developer opposed a similar project in 2016 at Khadija estate. The tenants there were given over Sh500,000 and said it was too little. In 2020, he offered Sh240,000. It is not right," Katana said.
Mombasa county chief of staff Joab Tumbo had earlier explained Joho's absence, saying he is out of the country.
However, Wamatangi said the committee clerk called the county to confirm Thursday's session.
"No one indicated to the committee that the Governor is not around," Wamatangi said.
"This is the second time the governor is skipping this meeting.
"I find it difficult to understand why a Governor would be accorded the dignity and respect by the Senate to explain himself and not reciprocate that dignity and respect," the Kiambu Senator said.
The Senate ordered Buxton Point Apartment, the developer, to provide all documents to the committee.
Wamatangi also ordered the county to provide all documents regarding the tender, its award, the advertisement in the media and the minutes of the executive committee meeting that approved the tendering process.
"The governor should appear before this committee within the next 14 days," Wamatangi said.
Failure to do that will attract a fine of Sh500,000.
Joho also risks arrest should he fail to appear before the committee for the third time.
Buxton Point Apartment CEO Ahmed Badawy told the committee he could not reveal much information because the matter is pending in the Court of Appeal.
However, he said the project is a joint venture between the county government and the company.
"It also has a confidentiality clause meaning I cannot reveal some aspects of the project," Badawy said.
Wamatangi explained that the Senate committee has the powers of a High Court and can summon anyone to go any information needed.
Badawy said the project relieves the county government of the burden of financing it.
"The project also provides the much needed affordable housing," Badawy said.
The project will have about 1,850 units of one, two and three-bedroom houses.
The one-bedroom units go for Sh1.8 million, the two-bedroom ones for Sh3 million and the three-bedroom ones at Sh4.2 million.
However, the residents said they cannot afford the units at the proposed mortgage plans saying most of them do not qualify for mortgages.
"We would prefer a tenant purchase agreement," Tsuma said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)