The County Government of Uasin Gishu is seeking to evict at least 683 tenants who are living in its houses and have not been paying rent for several years now.
An operation to kick out the tenants started last week following the lapse of three eviction notices that were issued in September and December last year as well as February 2023.
According to the Housing and Urban Development Chief Officer Julius Koech, the current eviction is targeting tenants with rent arrears of over Ksh200,000.
Already 200 tenants have been evicted.
“We started recovering rent arrears amounting to Ksh140 million owned to the county by the tenants. The exercise started last week and we’re progressing well,” said Koech.
Uasin Gishu County has 1,095 rental houses. It is projected to collect at least Ksh5.4 million in rent, monthly – an amount they are yet to attain due to some of the tenants failing to pay.
The Chief Officer noted that failure by the tenants to pay rent had impacted negatively on the county’s local revenue collection.
County budget
Subsequently, some of the programs financed by the county have not been sufficiently funded.
“Our plan is to ensure arrears are paid up because this is the money budgeted for to run county programs. It is important to understand that budget includes all revenue streams,” said CO Koech.
“We’ve engaged suppliers and contractors as well as many other projects and money we’re using to pay them is what we expect to get from the rent we collect among others,” he added.
Estates that the county is seeking to evict tenants who have not been paying rent include Agricultural Machinery Services (AMS) in Chepkoilel, Pioneer, Mayabi, Kodhek, Kilimani, Kamanda, Uhuru, Kapsoya Gardens, Kidiwa, Tom Mboya, among others.
Meanwhile, the Housing and Urban Development Chief Officer is advising those with rent arrears to work on paying them or face eviction.
He however said the county is willing to engage those with arrears on an acceptable repayment plan as long as they clear at least half of what they are expected to pay.
“Pay at least 50 per cent of the areas and we’ll negotiate payment plans for the remaining amount,” CO Koech said.
Once the eviction of tenants with over Ksh200,000 arrears is completed, the Chief Officer says they will go to those with less than Ksh100,000 and others.
