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Kajiado Governor Joseph ole Lenku has asked a Senate Committee to compel the Jamii Bora/Kisaju View/ Jamii Bora Trust Housing scheme to submit official documents of the land they are developing to enable the county government to waive penalties for land rates.

Ole Lenku’s government claims the housing scheme, which has been operating under three different names, owes Sh260 million in land rates between 2013 and 2023.

When he appeared before the Senate Roads, Transport and Housing Committee chaired by Kiambu’s Karungo wa Thang’wa, Lenku accused the housing project developer of changing names to evade taxation and continue to dupe Kenyans.

“Jamii Bora/Kisaju View/Jamii Bora Trust are not coming to you with clean hands. They should be compelled to provide legal documents. He who seeks equity must come with clean hands,” said Lenku.

Local authority

He said change of names and ownership to evade taxation had made it difficult for the county to transact or engage in meaningful settlements.

“Most developments have been undertaken without County approval and the ones sanctioned by the defunct local authority have lapsed. Developments approved by the defunct local authority need to be validated and approved afresh to continue with any further development and redevelopment.”

Lenku told the committee that Jamii Bora is managing 2,000 units, which now qualify to be managed by the County going by the threshold of the Urban Areas, and Cities Act 2011 (revised in 2019).

He argued that the township should be managed by the County for a progressive review of development needs while recognizing the existence of private entities.

Lenku said that in line with the County government laws, Physical and Use Planning Act and the Urban Areas and Cities Act the County will undertake site pickings to determine existing developments on site, collect/register property owners and compel production of revised building plans.

The Governor said Jamii Bora Makao initiated the project and that in subsequent years, there have been several transitions of ownership and management including Kisaju Viewpark Limited and later Jamii Bora Trust.

“This transitioning has made it difficult to follow up on matters related to statutory payments and follow up on compliance issues. The land occupied has two titles: Kajiado Kisaju 58 and Kajiado 2995 registered under Jamii Bora Makao,” he said.

 He said that Jamii Bora submitted a request in 2004 and made a payment of Sh2.9 million for sub-division and a further Sh1.95 million for building plan approvals.

“We do not have any records of the scheme plan submitted for approval since physical planning had not been devolved by then.”

Petitioners

Kajiado County now wants the Senate to compel Jamii Bora to allow the County to undertake site picking of the existing development, evaluate the number of units developed on-site and submit a subdivision scheme plan for the site.

“We have mutation plans for parcel No 2995 and a registry index map for parcel no Kajiado/Kisaju 58 that holds two properties for Jamii Bora. The County requests the Senate to compel Jamii Bora to submit the revised scheme plan and statutory payments which they have not done to date,” said Lenku.

Senators who took issue with the developer saying that the county government should give a waiver on the developer so that buyers of the units can be protected.

“The waiver should benefit all the petitioners. The proprietors are fraudsters. The County should transfer benefit to the petitioners,” said Nominated Peris Tobiko who is also the committee vice chairperson.