Westgate restoration to be delayed until owner and bank agree

Sony Holdings Director Alex Tachenberg during the Westgate Mall inquiry, Wednesday.  [PHOTOS: BEVERLYNE MUSILI/STANDARD]

By LONAH KIBET

NAIROBI, KENYA: Sony Holdings Director Alex Tachenberg, one of the owners of Westgate Mall, could not give a clear indication of when the restoration process would start, citing differences with their bank.

Mr Tachenberg said things were on hold until the issues with Kenya Commercial Bank were resolved.

“Our yearly income was Sh1 billion but the insurance only covers Sh600 million, which we were paying for. We will undergo a loss of Sh400 million yearly until the mall is restored and fully occupied,” said Tachenberg.

He added that the cumulative loss on the income could go up to Sh2 billion because from the time the building will be ready for occupation it would take at least two to three years for it to start generating the same income.

Tachenberg was making his submissions Wednesday to the committee on rapid restoration of the mall.

Nakumatt Westgate in their submissions said they recorded a loss of over Sh1 billion but have recovered almost the same amount from their insurance company.

STRINGENT MEASURES

Unfortunately, the small shops within the supermarket were not insured against terrorism and lost their stock.

“We have a shop on shop understanding with our clients where they own the goods until they are sold. The clients always have their covers which unfortunately did not include terrorism,” said former Nakumatt Westgate Branch Manager David Muturi.

Meanwhile, public places with huge gatherings need to adopt stringent security measures to avoid future terror attacks.

Engineer Benedick Kimau, working with Kenya Railways, said there should be strong and continuous surveillance in all public areas attracting large crowds.

“Public agents and mall owners should be subjected to that minimum standard security requirement where all players have a base level of collecting data on security,” he proposed.

The committee members ended the public hearing yesterday and will be holding closed door meetings from today to go over the other written submissions. They have received over 50 submissions so far.

The report is expected to be ready and submitted to the Tourism Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie in February.