A youth group in Kiambu County has embarked on an ambitious housing initiative meant to uplift lives.

The group of 15 youthful men and women came together and formed Ribazi Homes Sacco after saving Ksh261,000 each over a period of one year to start their first project at Gachie in Kiambaa sub-county.

Their chairman George Maina said the team cumulatively managed to raise Ksh4 million from the savings and approached Jhela, a money lending organization and with a Ksh12 million loan, they intend to build 40 self-contained rental houses initially.

Maina, who spoke during the ground-breaking of the project, said it was not easy to raise the savings under the prevailing economic circumstances and members had to deny themselves luxuries to achieve their goals.

He added that the project is unique as it will be on a leased one-acre parcel of land which significantly cuts the cost since a 40 x 80-feet plot in the area goes for Ksh10 million.

“The lease expires after 17 years during which period we shall have recovered the cost of our investment and made good money on top,” Maina said.

Area MP promises to support the youth

Thika Town MP Patrick Wainaina who is the founder of Jhela, a subsidiary of his Jungle Foundation, hailed the Ribazi youth group and said it should be emulated by others.

“This project is the biggest among those funded by Jhela out of about 3,500 groups in the county. We are impressed by these young people and I want to encourage others to follow suit,” Wainaina said.

At the same time, the legislator who is also aspiring for the Kiambu governorship said a law should be enacted to zone certain regions in the county as agricultural and others for housing.

Wainaina stated that Kiambu being close to Nairobi was likely to lose all agricultural land to real estate in the near future due to the good returns on investment from the housing project.

‘‘We appreciate the fact that there is good money in real estate and there is a huge demand for houses in Kiambu which is a bedroom to Nairobi, but we should have a balancing act by zoning some areas purely for agricultural use,” the MP said.