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Over 300 investors with Urithi housing cooperative society are up in arms with the cooperative, which has failed to deliver on provision of houses for its members, three years after entering into agreement with the cooperative.
According to the disgruntled investors’ spokesperson, Ben Oluoch, the company was supposed to issue the members with their house keys one year after the project started in May 2016, but three years down the line not a lot has happened.
“We have been following this issue with Urithi house cooperative management for months on, through official channels , we have written e-mails ,made phone calls and even tried to asked for meetings for status meeting but we are just being taken in circles,” said Ben Kayungo, one of the investors.
The investors who are House owners to be in the proposed Osteen Terrace garden (OTG) in Joska, Machakos County are wondering why the project has taken such a long period of time with most of its members having attained the 80% payment threshold.
Payment plan
Under the initial four-year payment plan, investors were to pay an introductory price of KSh1.6 million for one-bedroomed house and upon remittance of KSh750, 000, a member was entitled to occupy their house and complete balance payment while occupying the houses.
The project later appreciated and the next batch of investors were required to pay an introductory price of KSh2.25 million, also stretching for a period of four years, for the first 40 units.
“There are a total of 300 Investors involved this particular project and the investment is huge. If you do quick math, it’s close to 500 million shillings,” adds Kayungo.
“We want nothing less from Urithi but our house keys.”
Over the weekend, the group camped at the construction site for the better part of the day to try and get answers from the society’s management who gave the investors meeting a wide berth.
The disgruntled investors however invited members of the media, in what they termed as an effort to try and safeguard their investment and also expose the cooperative society from exploiting other innocent investors.
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One investor Mary Gathoni, who has three investments with Urithi Cooperative society in Joska, JUJA Housing scheme and a land investment is worried because none has taken off three years later or issued with her land title Deed , which gives her sleepless nights.
“Three years is a long time, if I had placed that money in some other use, I would be seeing the benefits,” she told Kurunzi.
“I really regret having made the choice to invest with Urithi cooperative society. We are appealing to relevant authorities to come to our aid, more so the office the DPP and DCI who have been instrumental in solving similar cases, helping the downtrodden in the society.
“When we read in the papers that Urithi cooperative society and the beleaguered Ekeza Sacco are collaborating it gives us too much worries,” says the investors’ chairperson, Rose Ndungu.
“Nothing has been happening on this site. When the management learnt of our planned visit they sent a few construction workers on site to hoodwink us.
“Who does wall keying before even completion of interior construction works?”
Ultimatum
The group has now issued some demands and ultimatum to the Urithi cooperativity society management:
The stalled project to be kick-start in the next seven working daysThey want monthly status meeting with members till the project completionAll member’s payment status and Agreements to be made available to members
Failure to meet all the conditions issued by the disgruntled investors, they will be left with no option but to pursue legal options.
The Urithi Cooperative society management is yet to respond to our request for a comment.
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