-Courtesy of Daily Nation February 12, 2021(pg 10)

The high court has stopped a private developer from accessing a block of apartments belonging to the Kenya Railways Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme. On January 26, Justice Charles Yano of the Environment and Land Court issued temporary orders restraining Blue Water Properties Limited from accessing the property on Chambilo Road, Mombasa. This followed an application by Mr James Kanyeki and Wamukota Toili on behalf of the trustees, who also want the company compelled to pay Sh 86,780,760 as special damages for restoration and repairs of the property.

In the suit, the plaintiffs said Blue Water Properties entered with Corporate Trustees, who managed the Kenya Railways Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme, in May 2014 under unclear circumstances, which subsequently led the company not to comply with the obligations under the lease and the obligations set out under Section 66 of the Land Act 2012.

The property that sits on a 2.50-acre plot in KIzingo comprises of 32 two-bedroomed units in four blocks. The orders are a small victory for the Prof John Nyerere-led managaers of the scheme, who are grappling with paying accumulated arrears for retirees. Since they replaced Corporate Trustees led by James Olubayi in August 2019, the managers have reduced eight months of unpaid arrears to only three, which they hope to bring up to date this month. According to Mr Kanyeki, the head of administration and communication at the scheme, the goverment helped unlock a case between the scheme and private developer Erdermann Property Limited that has seen the latter get a court order and froze property worth Sh 26 billion. Consequently, the scheme had ground to a halt.

The case involved Railway Golf Club that Eldermann had sought to develop but now has seen the goverment take it over as part of a plan to set up the Green Park bus terminus.