Tenants in Nairobi County houses owe City Hall Sh224 million

The Director of Housing and Planning Marion Rono when she appeared before the budget and appropriations committee

NAIROBI, KENYA: Tenants residing in the over 17,000 county houses in Nairobi owe City Hall Sh224 million in rent arrears, it has emerged.

A budget and appropriations committee on Thursday heard that the tenants of the houses had defaulted to pay for the past five to six years resulting into the revenue target shortfall. This has consequently affected service delivery.

The Robert Mbatia –led committee also heard that tenants from houses located in Maringo and Woodley estates were the biggest defaulters.

Urban Housing and planning director Marion Rono, appearing before the committee, said that the county had so far collected Sh390 million in the first eight months of the current financial year against a target of Sh410 million.

“We are keen on ensuring that we implement mechanisms to recover the Sh224 million owed to us by the tenants in the next six months. By the end of the financial year we target to have collected Sh615.8 million from the county rental houses,” she said.

Committee vice chair, Patrick Karani, however, put the director to task to explain why her department allowed for the loss of revenue through weak or no enforcement.  He also faulted the lack of reconciliation of payment records for the delayed remittance of Sh89 million paid by tenants.

“We are aware that this money has been paid by tenants through the Jambo pay system but it does not reflect on your systems. This may lead to tenants being evicted yet they have paid,” stated Karani.

The director, however, stressed that her department had not been able to collect money owed due to challenges such as court cases, failure by the tenants to honor debts, sub-letting and political interference.