Ngara Estates residents face eviction by county over accrued rent arrears

Ngara Ward MCA Chege Mwaura at the Vetting and Appointments Committee at City hall, on 06, December, 2022. [File. Standard].

Residents of Ngara Estates are facing eviction over accrued rent arrears.

On Wednesday, Nairobi City County Government revenue officers moved to enforce the eviction using hired goons.

The Old and New Ngara estates have three, two, and one-bedroom houses whose monthly rent is fixed at Sh11,000, Sh9,350 and Sh6,000 respectively.

Residents said there was a waiver by Mike Sonko’s regime when he was governor and that the new county administration should not factor in rents accrued during that time.

The Standard has a copy of the waiver of all rent arrears owed by tenants in the County rental houses as of April 30, 2019.

It instructs tenants to start paying rent in full with effect from May 1, 2019, failure of which it says enforcement actions including evictions and impounding of household items shall commence.

According to Mbugua Karuga, an advocate of one of the tenants who has lived at New Ngara Estate third generation, there are discrepancies in payment records after the rent payment method went online.

“It is well known that the payment method changed to an online system but they (officers) have come here with manual records. Many tenants have been going to the county offices to reconcile but are always told that the systems are down,” he said.

Mbugua added: “Further to these, there are several court orders stopping such exercise until pending cases are determined but today the county ignored. We ask the authority to kindly stop infringing on the rights of tenants, some of whom are senior citizens who served in the County a long time ago.”

He asked for a meeting between tenants and the County to iron out issues of rent arrears before enforcing evictions.

Chege Mwaura, Member of County Assembly of Ngara, blamed the Johnson Sakaja-led County Government for not honouring the waiver.

“There is a system that sometimes does not function properly, including releasing receipts. My request was the need to first reconcile before evicting tenants. I ask the County to be lenient first by giving tenants time to reconcile the payment details,” said Mwaura.

He added: “We understand the County needs revenue but it would have been good for it to engage the tenants so that they commit to how they will be paying the arrears instead of eviction. Those that do not show willingness to pay should then be given eviction notices.”

He said the goons have caused suffering even to those who have paid, which is not good.

Mwaura asked the county leadership to be humane enough and resolve the rent arrears in a dignified manner since some have paid rent through M-PESA but the messages had not reflected in the computer that was being used by officers near the gate to verify.

Nobert Oduor, a former councillor, supported the County on the evictions, saying it has financial obligations to meet including salaries and the provision of other services.

“If someone has accrued rent arrears of over Sh1 million, how many years has he or she been living without paying rent yet still expects services? It doesn’t make sense and this eviction should be an example to others who have a tendency of defaulting,” he said.

Nairobi City County Chief Officer for Housing and Urban Renewal, Lydia Mathia, said the County started giving notices to tenants of the two estates in December last year to reconcile or clear the arrears, but many have been adamant.

“We have an obligation to provide services to the city residents, which require money and some of the sources is rent from the houses that we own in about 35 estates. Rent is highly subsidised, with the highest being Sh17,000. Some are as low as Sh2,000 and they are in good locations and near the Central Business District (CBD),” said Ms Mathia.

She added: “We are lenient and we have been sending multiple reminders since December last year until March this year and now it’s time for them to pay up. We have various categories of tenants who are just adamant, but since this is the end of the financial year, we have to enforce evictions.”

On the waiver, Ms Mathia said: “You cannot waive a principal debt, only penalties and interests. For you to waive a principal debt in government books, there has to be an elaborate process in line with the Public Finance Management Act. Rent does not attract penalties or interests, so our debts are as they are and that waiver does not apply since it was not legal.”

The County official said the arrears range as high as Sh1.4 million and they are targeting those with arrears accrued within six months.

She said the County has been patient and lenient long enough with the tenants in the city, not only in Ngara.

Ms Mathia admitted there are cases filed against the eviction, but they have not received any court order so far.

She said the above two Old and New Ngara estates owe the County about Sh60 million.

Chief Officer for Revenue Administration, Tiras Njoroge, said they are aiming at raising Sh200 million from rental collections.

“In the first 10 months of the financial year, we allowed Nairobians to do self-compliance, but with the remaining one and a half months, we have increased our revenue collection measures. We have a revenue target of Sh20 billion and we are now at 60 percent,” he said.

In housing alone, he said they are looking at raising Sh300 million to Sh315 million.