CONTROVERSIAL CHINESE PROPERTY DEVELOPER HALTS CONSTRUCTION OF THE MULTI-BILLION SHILLINGS RIVER ESTATE PROJECT IN NAIROBI

Contacted for comment, Erdemann Construction Company Projects Manager John Rajwayi said: “It is true we are not going on 24 hours as planned right from the start of this project mainly because of technical financial challenges that I cannot delve into details.”

 Zeyun Zang and lawyer
 Gichuki King’ara outside a Nairobi court 

The ambitious construction of a multi-billion shillings residential flats in Ngara Estate, Nairobi has ground to a halt. The Weekly Vision online has received reports that the project whose commissioning and the ground-breaking ceremony was witnessed by Nairobi governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko and the controversial Chinese businessman and CEO of Erdemann Properties Ltd Zeyun Yang never actually took off over lack of finances. The Chinese man had declared at the time that construction works would be on a continuous 24 hours non-stop basis and would be completed within three years.

The project was expected to cost Kshs. 7 billion and the plan was to construct 3,000 high rise flats. The project is said to have ground to a halt mid last year with the contractor mainly concentrating on finalizing the security wall, drainage, roads, and streets lights in and out of the River Estate.

The now-stalled River Estate 

Ngara Estate resident’s chairman, Patrick Ngige told this writer, “We are shocked that everything has ground to a halt after the streets and roads to and from River Estate were done and perimeter walls finished. We were told that this is a project that is going to go on non-stop 24 hours until completion in three years, but we never saw anything going on 24 hours here – it is now dead silence.”

River Apartments estate in Nairobi’s Ngara estate area next to Ngara Girls High School was expected to comprise of eight blocks 34 storeys high and was meant for low and middle-income earners in line with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government’s commitment to providing affordable housing for all Kenyans.

Contacted for comment, Erdemann Construction Company Projects Manager John Rajwayi said: “It is true we are not going on 24 hours as planned right from the start of this project mainly because of technical financial challenges that I cannot delve into details.”

Mr Rajwayi said that once these technicalities are ironed out, the project will start full blast 24 hours non-stop as planned.

The same Chinese developer has been accused by Kenya’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission of having bribed Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) board members with cash and houses to secure a contract for construction a Sh2 billion Lake Basin Mall in Kisumu.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission said it had uncovered a bribery racket in LBDA, which saw Erdemann Properties inflate the construction costs for the Mall to cater for kickbacks in return for the lucrative contract.