Part of trillion worth of founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s wealth is a shanty estate in Kitengela, Kajiado County that earns the family some hundreds thousands every month.
Kwa Uhuru is the name of this estate that is along Namanga road, few kilometres from Kitengela town. It is an isolated iron sheet Kijiji with 200 houses and accommodates slightly over 400 people. It was named after President Uhuru Kenyatta before he joined politics.
The two decades estate has a perimeter wall and monthly rent is Sh1, 200 and Sh1, 450 for slightly bigger ones. Thus on average Kenyattas get Sh250, 000.
“Rent is deposited to an agent account identified as Gucu Ndung’u, strictly before date 10 of every month. It is then channeled to the President’s family account” a tenant revealed.
But how the family ended up putting up a slum? This Kijiji sits on a bigger land of Kenyattas. The mabati estate was put to house workers of Kitengela Honey Products Farm venture that was established by the first family there but it collapsed.
The family decided to rent the houses to workers in farms nearby. Most of them work at a nearby Exotic Penina Fields Group Ltd, some at Maasai flowers limited while others at construction and farms around.
The houses are built in blocks with front porches and an allowance for front yard veggie gardens. The space is enough for small bed, two seats, a table and cooking utensils.
However, apart from 24-hour security provided by a private security firm, consistent supply of electricity and borehole water, tenants share bathrooms and toilets that are in filthy conditions and some have no doors.