Chinese Firms Line Up Billions for President Uhuru's Cheap Houses Project in Nairobi

Top Chinese companies have lined up billions of shillings for President Uhuru's cheap houses set to be built in Nairobi.

The firms are jostling for the tender worth billions of shillings for the construction of 1, 500 low-cost housing units in Nairobi’s Park Road for sale to workers.

Six Chinese companies, including Sinohydro Limited and China Road and Bridge Corporation that have previously won mega infrastructure projects like the SGR line, are among firms that will be selected by government to set up the one, two and three-bedroom houses in the first phase of President Kenyatta's affordable housing plan.

The project, which will be undertaken in the next two years, will have 105 one-bedroom units, 540 two-bedroom units and 855-three bedroom houses erected on a 7.9-acre parcel of land in Park Road estate.

The new housing units will border Park Road Primary School and Muslim Academy and will be a walking distance to the Nairobi central business district.

Documents of the contract shows that the developer will be required to set up 400 units from the commencement date of the project and will be paid 20 percent of the tender value upon completion, 40 percent upon completion of the entire units and the remaining 40 percent after the defect liability period.

The housing units will be sold to Kenyans at between Sh600,000 to Sh3 million.

“Private developers should not even be bothered by that (land, infrastructure, power and water) because we are providing all that. All we want them to do is construction,” said Housing and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary James Macharia in a past interview.

The government estimates the total cost of the housing project – which will include 800,000 houses for sale and 200,000 social housing units in the slums - at Sh2.3 trillion.