Teleposta Towers earmarked for sale

BY MOSES MICHIRA

One of Nairobi’s most iconic buildings, the Teleposta Towers, has been put on the market for sale marking the end for one the country’s biggest retirement schemes.

Trustees of the scheme made the resolution in a meeting held last week, where it was also decided that the State would be granted priority among prospective buyers because it is the largest tenant.

The decision to sell the building was informed by the fact that the pension scheme closed its doors to new members since the giant Kenya Posts and Telecommunication Corporation was disintegrated into smaller firms.

A trustee who spoke to The Standard said that the building would be disposed to enable the scheme meet its financial obligations for its 13,000 members.

“Ours is a closed scheme and essentially all the members will be lost through death,” said the trustee who requested anonymity because he was not mandated to speak on behalf of the scheme. We have since been able to ascertain the facts of the disposal from another member.

The deal will be ratified by the Public Procurement Oversight Authority as a formality because the trustees of the scheme have full authority to act on behalf of the members.

Already, more than 8000 members of the scheme are aged over 55-years and are drawing monthly benefits while about 5000 are yet to attain the retirement age and therefore not qualified for pension just yet.

A seller is expected to be appointed before the end of the year to negotiate the price on behalf of the scheme, in the multi-billion shilling transaction that could easily be the single biggest deal in the property market yet.

The building is the largest asset owned by the scheme whose members were formerly workers in the corporation that was split to form the Postal Corporation and the two privatised telecommunication firms Safaricom and Telkom Kenya. The government still owns minority stakes in the two firms.