Urithi Housing Cooperative Society has sought to explain how its model of housing works right from the time a member begins making payments to the time he/she is handed over the keys to their complete house.
This follows a Hivisasa article that reported on apparent 'frustrations' of some Urithi members two months ago.
One aggrieved member, Anthony Njihia, had taken on Twitter where he accused Urithi of 'taking buyers in circles' despite making full payments.
"You owe me a title deed for land fully paid for in 2015. Despite calls and on occasions coming to your offices, you keep taking the buyers in circles. I would not recommend you to fellow Kenyans. I invest with Urithi but I am a disappointed Kenyan," Njihia had said in a series of tweets.
However, speaking during an exclusive interview on Thursday, Urithi Housing Digital Director Hillary Kevin, said that Njihia's claims were 'sufficiently and accordingly addressed by the management'.
This is as Kevin clarified that Urithi Housing 'does not and has never engaged' in the sale of any grabbed land as the society 'undertakes professional due diligence before engaging with any land vendor'.
The society's digital director added that Urithi operates on a 'socio-economic model of housing' which he expounded in details through a brief.
The brief states that the model is entirely dependent on members whose contributions are key and vital in initiating and executing any project that seeks to provide housing, be it public or private.
Upon payment of a pre-determined deposit or down payment, the balance of the cost is spread out and paid over a period of between 12 and 48 months.
Urithi Housing Society Chairman, Samuel Maina, says monthly subscriptions vary from one member to the other depending on their economic ability.
“For the project timelines to be achieved, also entirely depends on the speed of members to make their contributions. However, slow remittance by some members has contributed to delays being experienced as most times the society has to move with the speed of the slowest member in payment,” says Maina, as quoted in the brief.
“Speed is determined by how fast you get money from members. But due to the uncertainty and unpredictable nature of contributions and cash flows, we adjust accordingly. The pricing does not change over time simply because the model mitigates on the cost of labour, land and materials. Hence making it affordable without changing the initial price," he adds.
What follows, the brief notes, is mobilisation which entails recruiting members and other stakeholders, followed by the pursuit of statutory and other approvals by various government bodies, both national and county level.
"Once the necessary approvals have been granted, the groundbreaking marks the beginning of construction work, whose completion is entirely dependent on members’ fidelity to make subscriptions," the Urithi brief further states.
Maina also explains in the same brief what could have happened in Njihia's case.
“There are incidents where a member pays their subscriptions in full and expect that they would get their units but the principle here is that we pool together to own together," said the Urithi chairman.
“The explanation is very simple. While you may have paid yours in full, the model works in such a way that those who pay upfront help kick-start the project and sustain it by making the first commitment which is key to property ownership and the subsequent subscriptions take us through to the tail end,” he added.