Commercial Projects

Ugly Scuffle That Killed Hazina Trade Centre Dream

The project has been a source of pain for the NSSF since 2011.

Updated on

March 7, 2020

It was destined to become the tallest building in East and Central Africa, with fritted glazing, a helipad and a viewing gallery where millionaires and regional celebrities could catch some breath looking down over the Nairobi skyline.

But nearly seven years after construction got underway on Hazina Trade Centre, the building sits unfinished – at 40% of its projected height – staring at the closeby University of Nairobi Tower, which dwarfs what was to be the National Social Security Fund’s flagship project.

The Sh6.7 billion project, which was to involve the construction of a 180-metre (39-storey) tower atop what used to be an eight-storey Hazina Trade Centre between Mokhtar Daddah and Monrovia streets has been a source of extreme trouble for the NSSF since its inception.

The project was suspended barely two weeks after its ground-breaking ceremony in July 2013 after China Jiangxi and China Wu Yi – the firms that lost the tender – moved to court challenging the award of the contract to Cementers Ltd., which had won the tender in 2011.

The court ruled in favour of the Chinese contractors forcing the NSFF to go back to the drawing board. The pension fund later awarded the contract to China Jiangxi International.

Soon after, Nakumatt – which was a tenant of the Hazina Trade Centre – moved to court seeking to stop construction of the tower until 2023 when its 20-year lease was to expire.

Nakumatt waged a legal battle against the NSSF, arguing that construction was interfering with its business by dumping material waste and installing heavy machinery and causing what it termed as “unprecedented nuisance” to its workers and shoppers.

By the time the retailer obtained court orders stopping the project, the Chinese contractor had pushed the building up to the fifteenth floor. Negotiations between the Nakumatt and the NSSF got underway with both parties hoping to reach a “mutually agreeable position”.

Nakumatt was later forced out of the building due to non-payment of rent.

Days after the project was stopped by the court, then Nairobi County governor Evans Kidero asked the developer to obtain a fresh environmental impact assessment report from Nema in a move that saw the eruption of a fight pitting the NSSF against City Hall.

On the one side, Dr Kidero argued that the project would be a nightmare for businesses and motorists in Nairobi, while on the other, the NSSF said the traffic management issues had been taken into consideration in the planning of the development.

The scuffle attracted the attention of the Ministry of Public Works, which issued a damning report indicating that it would be unsafe for the building to go beyond 25 floors since the existing structure beam could not support an edifice of that magnitude.

Shocked by the report, the NSSF moved to seek a second opinion from the ministry after which the pension scheme chose to top out the building on the fifteenth floor.

This decision, according to a report tabled recently in Parliament, reduced the project’s cost to Sh4 billion from Sh6.7 billion – saving Kenyan workers Sh2.7 billion.