Kenyans Taxpayer to Pay 1.8B for Lavish Lake House for Envoy

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced plans to purchase a luxurious ambassadorial residence and chancellery that will cost the taxpayer Ksh1.8 Billion. 

The residence is located in the posh resort city of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. 

Economic analysts have ranked Geneva as the most expensive city to live in, which explains the costly price attached to the property. 

The foreign affairs ministry made the purchase plans public in 2018 immediately after identifying the property. 

The agreement of purchase was for the payments to be done in installments. 

The government imbursed the ministry Ksh1 billion in the last financial year as the first installment for the property.

Treasury data tabled before National Assembly in May shows that the purchase has been further allocated Ksh820 million for the year starting July 1 to complete the purchase.

The cost of servicing and maintaining the property also rests squarely on the shoulders of Kenyan taxpayers. 

The decision to buy the property was informed by a need to cut the cost of renting buildings in  Europe’s UN headquarters which also houses the headquarters of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Since 1977, the Kenyan diplomatic mission in Geneva has been renting space whose rent totals to a pricy Ksh140 million a year. 

For the last forty years, Kenya has collectively spent Ksh4 billion on office space in Geneva. 

Officials from the ministry of foreign affairs explained the move, asserting that Kenya has an image to maintain in the international circles and it comes at a price.