The Civil Servants working in the expansive Kiambu County will in the next 2 months own houses whose construction is at an advanced stage.
The construction works which now stands at about 80 per cent complete will be up for grabs from August 1st 2018 for employees that do not have government houses and have been travelling long distances to their workplace.
According to the Kiambu County Director of Housing, Lucia Munjogu, the project had targeted to construct 200 houses but upon inception, it was discovered that the plot which had been earmarked for the project was close to riparian area, therefore they were reduced to 187 units.
There are units of 3, 2 and one bedrooms and their prices will vary depending on the unit size.
The Director made these revelations during last week’s County delivery service meeting held at the Administration Police Chapel in Kiambu Township.
She told the officers to inform their staff and also endeavor to purchase some for themselves. “Don’t miss out on this golden opportunity,” she told those present.
She explained that her department had in the recent past experienced problems when officers were posted to Kiambu but could not be housed within the county owing to the shortage of Government houses.
She said the few that had been constructed before could not accommodate all the officers comfortably as they had grown in numbers.
Some of the officers who had also been allocated the government houses had opted to leave their relatives occupying the said houses and that such an arrangement had been a challenge to them as they could not evict the said relatives.
On this arrangement, the Chairman of the service delivery committee, Kiambu County Commissioner (CC), Wilson Wanyanga directed that the housing department administration go round with a view of confirming if in deed those occupying the houses were relatives to the officers.
“If they are not and you confirm that they are business people who are enjoying the comfort of staying in our spacious government houses at the expense of officers serving in this county, we shall forcefully evict them without any notice,” he said.
Wanyanga reiterated that there was no way some people especially business people would be allowed to occupy government houses while government officers were compelled to travel far distances to the offices or pay exorbitant rents.
The CC added that the government was a caring employer who took care of the needs of her employees and that those who worked in Kiambu would not have to travel long distances to their workplace.
He further added that owing to the expansion that was taking place in Nairobi and more people opting to relocate to less industrious locations, it was prudent for the employees to purchase the houses.
The housing project is in line with the 4 agendas of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s second term in office.
The project is partly situated on a plot which had been grabbed by a church and was demolished by the County government in conjunction with Ministry of Housing after the moderator defied court orders and attempted to continue building a storey building in 2014.
By Lydia Shiroya
