Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi suspends Sh5b Tassia project

Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi.

By GEO FFREY MOSOKU and JACOB NGETICH

Kenya: Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi has now suspended the controversial Sh5 billion Tassia project to be undertaken by a Chinese firm.

The Cabinet Secretary made the move even as he is expected to expedite the appointment of new trustees to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) board to evaluate the tender awarded to China Jianxi.

Mr Kambi was quick to point out that he has not cancelled the tender but merely suspended it as he has no power to take such action.

He explained that the suspension would also give the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) time to conclude their audit and report back to him.

The latest development means that the NSSF board now has to meet and make a decision on the fate of the project.

However, reports indicate that another controversy could be in the offing over the composition of new members to be picked to fill three vacant slots in the board of trustees. The Ministry of Labour is accused of sidelining the Central Organisation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Kenya Employers in selecting new members.

Yesterday, Kambi told The Standard that he had taken the step to suspend the project to give the NSSF board of trustees time to resolve the row and clear allegations of graft facing the project.

The Labour Cabinet Secretary however did not say when the matter is expected to be concluded since the current board of the pension fund is not fully constituted. “The board will be in place hopefully by next week,” he said when asked when the ministry will fill the slots at the NSSF board.

The project was also facing another hurdle after the Nairobi County government gave a conditional approval to NSSF to ensure that infrastructure was properly put in place before they were given approvals to run the project and issue individual titles.

“The provision of infrastructure will enhance the final approval of the scheme, hence issuance of individual occupation certificates,” Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero said.

The project includes 90.4km of tarmac road reserves between the width of 6 to 15 metres and the equivalent number for street lighting, 124kms of culverts and storm water drainage, 66kms of sewer pipes of diameters ranging from 225mm to 450mm. Other infrastructural developments to be undertaken by the China Jiangxi International include the construction of over 12,000 manholes, 15.7kms of water reticulation and 69kms of wastewater drainage in the Tassia project.

The NSSF acting Managing Trustee, Mr Richard Langat, said the development of infrastructure in the Tassia settlement scheme was imposed on the NSSF as the legal owner of the land through a conditional approval by the City County of Nairobi and the tender given to China Jiangxi was Sh4.6 billion and not Sh5 billion as widely reported.

In a document seen by The Standard, most of the board members approved the project that will see the cost being transferred to the plot owners, who will be charged Sh920,000 per plot for infrastructure development.

In email exchanges in reply to Langat, regarding communication on the board paper No. BOT/257/2013 on the regularisation of Tassia II Scheme Infrastructure Development, Finance Secretary Mutua Kilaka approved it on behalf of the Treasury on December 18. NSSF Chairman Adan Mohamed also approved on the same day while Jacqueline Mugo, for the Federation of Kenya Employers approved a day later.

However, COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli, who blew the whistle on the affair, has since disowned the approval saying that a board cannot approve a project of such magnitude through email.

FKE has also since distanced itself from the approval.

In a complain letter to the acting Managing Trustee, Atwoli insists that the project must be stopped immediately until proper review of the investment committee is done and the full board meets to discuss and arrive at an informed decision.

The land in question, comprising 1,760 plots of 1/8 acre each, was acquired by NSSF in 1994/95 from Tassia Coffee Farm and Nokin Investment Ltd at the cost of Sh2.2 billion with the objective of developing it into residential and commercial properties.

However, according to Kambi, “illegal squatters” and “land grabbers” invaded the land claiming to have been sold to them by different companies.

A court case in 2004 ruled that the land belonged to NSSF and gave the Fund authority to evict the occupants, but given the development and subdivision that had been done and the politics surrounding it, it became difficult for the Fund to effect the eviction.

After a comprehensive meeting between NSSF, the government, the Office of the President and the Provincial Administration, it was agreed that the land be sold to the squatters at a cost of Sh650,000 per plot.

In the tender, China Railways No.5 Eng Group came second with an extra cost of Sh120 million, Slok Construction Ltd came third while seven other companies including Nzuca Consolidated, which quoted Sh 8.1 billion, did not meet the tender requirement.

The intense push by the acting Managing Trustee and Kambi came even as chairman Adan D. Mohamed was winding down. Mohamed’s three-year term ends tomorrow and Kambi is believed to already have someone lined up to replace him.