Parklands Stima Plaza ‘Clamped’ over Sh608m Debt

Nairobi City County yesterday clamped down the Parklands Stima Plaza building over a debt of Sh608 million in wayleaves.
City Hall officials were instructed to block all entrances to Stima Plaza using city hall trucks, bringing the normal activities to a sudden halt.
It took the intervention of the Kenya Power Board Chairman, former National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende to have the entrance unblocked.
Head of County Treasurer Accounting John Okere said the debt had accrued from 2002 way before the county government came into play.
"We have served them with notices but they have never heeded or even responded with an explanation," Okere told The Standard.
Okere said the last notice was on September 16 that gave them a deadline of October 9: "This again they ignored and so we had no choice but to take action."
Okere added that they had even negotiated for Stima Plaza to be deducting their debt from Nairobi City County power bills but they were reluctant: "Nairobi County pays Sh25 million to Kenya Power every month in power bills. This was an easy way of settling the debt."
The closure of Stima Plaza has been seen as retaliation from Nairobi County after power was disconnected on their premises over arrears: "We had arrears of Sh300 million which we have paid so they should also comply."
Kenya Power Corporate Communication Officer Kevin Sang said the matter had been submitted to the management. "We cannot disclose anything but discussions are underway with the county to deliberate on the way forward.For now operations are back to normal."
However, Okere said if the monies are not paid in time, the county will close down both of their offices in Ruaraka and the Central Business District.
Collection of revenue has been a challenge for the county as it resorts to desperate measures to demand their pay.Recently, the county was forced to pull down bill boards that caught advertisers unaware over an accumulated debt of Sh500 million.