Developers in Kiambu accused the County government of imposing new restrictions on investors and frustrating their businesses.
The developers claimed the move by the county had seen the construction of houses worth Ksh3 billion stall with the investors having reportedly prepaid the full amount for the units.
Chief Planning Officer Kennedy Karanja, however, denied accusations that they were sabotaging the developers arguing that they had failed to follow procedures before embarking on constructions.
The standoff between developers and the county government has affected close to 881 homeowners most of whom had hoped to have moved into their houses by August 2020.
The homeowners had paid Ksh 3.5 million and Ksh 6 million for the bungalow and maisonette units respectively.
The developers have accused the county government of selective approvals of construction in comparison to other areas that have continued with projects without any objection from the county government.
"Doing business with Kiambu County is a nightmare. Truth is, most of the land on which we've built commercial houses is ancestral and sits on more than three acres. How can you bar someone from putting up houses by claiming the land is below 50 by 100 inches in size?" asked the managing director of Willstone Homes, Ejidio Kinyanjui.
Kiambu County government recently stopped all subdivisions of land below 50 by 100 feet, and construction on land falling within 40 by 80 feet.
Investors urged the county government, the National Assembly, and the National Land Commission to explain why the projects were stalled.
Some of the stalled projects the fall around Kiambu area are: Willstone, Banda, and Laison Homes.
Banda Homes director Andrew Kamau Muhiu issued a statement last year blaming the delay of the projects on machinations of the off-plan real estate model.
He further added that the speedy completion of projects was dependent on clients making payments on time.
"It is true that we have experienced delays and of course because of various reasons such as late payment from clients and of course a slow down in work. We also underestimated the amount of work that was going to go into that project," defended the director.
Banda Homes is one of the real estate development companies that have been in the limelight for allegedly failing to live up to contractual obligations to deliver homes on time after investors had fully paid.
