Old estates to make way for modern blocks

For the past 40 years, Samson Chahale has called House No. 80 in Lumumba Estate in Kisumu home.

Chahale, who moved into the government-owned house three years after they were built by the colonialists in 1961, recalls the good old days when he considered himself lucky to be living in a permanent house, which few could afford then, while working with the British Council.

At that time the houses were well maintained by the municipal council. Then, sometime in the ’80s, it stopped maintaining them, leaving the job to individual tenants. That marked the beginning of estate’s decline. Today, the houses are in a deplorable state.

Ms Dolphin Akello, who lives in the estate, complained that there has been an increase in insecurity, with their water meters, water pipes and manhole covers being consistently vandalized.

“Most of us struggle to replace window panes, patch roofs and do other renovations but the majority, who cannot afford to fence off their units, are forced to buy water since taps, pipes and meters are vandalized every time they replaced,” she says.

Next to Lumumba Estate is Anderson Estate, a slum that borders some of the biggest and busiest business premises in Kisumu, including Mega Plaza, which houses Tuskys Supermarket, with Jumia Guest House just across the road.

Other estates previously housing civil servants such as Ondiek and Shauri Moyo are in equally bad shape.

However, things appear set to change as the county government prepares to take charge of the houses. One of the consequences is an increase in rents.

The secretary of Lumumba Estate Residents’ Association, Mr John Odenyo, said the increase was unfair since it was the responsibility of the government to provide decent accommodation for the citizens.

“A cow has to be well fed to produce milk; similarly, the council should only charge what these dilapidated houses are worth,” he said.

The Land, Housing and Urban Development ministry has also rolled out a plan to bring down buildings in estates like Shauri Moyo and replace them with new and modern structures.

Kisumu county director of Housing, Mr Ben Osewe, said they want to replace the units with high-rise blocks to accommodate civil servants.

The project, which is funded by the Civil Servants Housing Fund, will see the government construct 370 housing units where Shaurin Moyo estate now stands comprising houses of one to four bedrooms.

“Why would we build a poorly-structured house on a prime piece of land in the city centre when we can develop a storey building to accommodate double the number on the same land?” he asked.

“We need to redevelop the design of these estates in line with the town’s current needs. That is why we are undertaking the drastic measures to remodel the houses,” explained Mr Osewe.

The construction, scheduled for January, was postponed after residents went to court protesting their eviction.

So what happens if one wants to buy these old estates stand and put up new houses.

That, Mr Osewe said, is to be determined in due course to encourage local investors to partner with the county and central government to improve the housing situation in Kisumu.

County Council Assistant Clerk Mr Nicholas Okola traces the town’s housing troubles to the passage of the Bill on the transfer of functions such as health, education, housing and welfare in 1968, when the government stopped sending grants to the council.

“That brought the council to its knees as it struggled to pay workers’ salaries. That is why the council stopped maintaining its houses in 1980 or building new ones,” he said.

And since there was dire need for shelter due to increased urbanisation, houses would later crop up as informal settlements like Nyalenda and Obunga within the town.

In the early 1980s, the Local Government Loans Association would sit with the National Housing Corporation (NHC) to review the amount to be allocated to every authority, he said.

“That is when the Kisumu, Baringo and Eldoret social halls, among others, were built.

“But instead of constructing more houses for these authorities, they built tenant purchase houses, which took over much of Millimani Estate.”

He said the sector was dealt a major blow in 2000 when the Local Authority Transfer funds, was apportioned to local authorities based on the population census of 1979, without assessing the level of statutory debts.

“Of course, most authorities were caught up in the mess of unpaid debts to the NSSF and NHIF, including Kisumu, whose figure could not be ascertained due to massive corruption then,” he said.

That is when a policy of debt swapping was adopted, whereby councils that could not repay their debts would give up property of the same value to the National Housing Corporation.

“That is how we lost estates like Arina, Ofafa, Ondiek and Millimani to the National Housing Corporation,” he said.