Urithi grapples to regain its foothold

or Urithi redeems a Star project.

By Jame Wakahiuhiu

Urithi Housing Cooperative founder and Chairman Samuel Maina,

photo Urithirithi chairman

Urithi Housing Society is battling negative publicity that befell the organization beginning 2019 when financial problems set in and creditors, including banks, started hovering over its estimated Sh6 billion worth of assets.

The Society which was once a formidable force in the real estate sector started facing financial woes in April 2019 that culminated into a meeting with the investors, where many members complained that they had not received their title deeds, some for more than five years. Others decried the slow pace of construction, accusing management of pulling out of some of the construction sites.

About the same time, confusion reigned at Gakuo Real Estate Company, a land buying company, also based in Thika town. Gakuyo woes emanated from a publicized report on how the firm’s directors had allegedly siphoned more than Sh1 billion belonging to 78,000 members, many of them peasants.

An audit report, carried out by the then Commissioner of Cooperatives Mary Mungai following complaints from members, detailed what transpired. The panic caused jitters among investors in land buying and housing companies across Central Kenya.

Urithi was among the worst hit, with investors withholding monthly contributions and members of the Sacco demanding refunds in billions of shillings. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 worsened the situation, with a series of lockdowns and curfews strangling all economic activities and bringing the Kenyan economy to a halt.

As the construction sector came to a standstill last year, the High Court authorized Family Bank to auction 104 acres piece of land owned by the Sacco to recover Sh315.1 million owed by the housing cooperative.

All this could now be water under the bridge. According to Urithi Housing Cooperative founder and Chairman Samuel Maina, the court cases have been settled out of court and the Sacco is now back in most of its construction sites. “We have been in discussions with Family Bank – to sort the dispute with the members over the Panorama Gardens project,” Maina said last weekend.

Since inception in 2012, Urithi has undertaken nearly 200 projects, of which 120 have been completed and settled with investors. Another 38 projects have been finalized in the last one-and-a-half years, while the balance consists of ongoing projects.

Maina says Family Bank has now given Urithi Housing a partial discharge on the Panorama project which has more than 500 plots. “We hope titles will be out in five to six months. This is a big and important step for us as members will get back their plots whose titles had been withheld by the bank,” Maina told about 200 investors in the project during a meeting held on site on 14th May 2022.

He said the Sacco has adopted the Member Operated Model to deal with the project’s investors, the Sacco management and Family Bank. The bank has now granted the project a partial discharge.

“Panorama was one of the projects giving us problems, but we have reached an agreement between the members, the bank and my office. Panorama plots will now go back to the members, a major breakthrough in the revival journey of Urithi …those who have finalised their payments will get their plots back,” he told the investors.

 “We are back. We will ensure that all those who have invested in Urithi reap their benefits. Discussions are ongoing with projects such as Osteen Terrace Gardens (OTG), Birmingham and Ruby Gardens among others,” Maina said.

“The court cases and injunctions have been withdrawn. Other members of various projects will soon be called into separate meetings to get an update and adopt the same model on their projects,” he said.

Thanking the bank and investors in the project, Maina said the Sacco will soon reach out to all the investors of other projects. “We are back to many of our construction sites and handed over to members the Utange houses in Mombasa, Juja plains and Gem projects and Rongai Gardens.