A landlord has been left counting losses after his real estate retirement plan goes down the drain.
85-year-old David Ndolo from Kitengela told the media that he had lost more than Ksh10 million in rent after his multimillion apartment block stayed unoccupied for 4 years.
The building has 5 bedsitters and 19 two-bedroom houses which used to earn him Ksh 250,000 every month.
“I have watched helplessly as my retirement investment crumbles,” he lamented.
His tenants started to flee due to sewer water suspected to be coming from an adjacent building linked to a retired government official.
Ndolo’s troubles began in 2014 when over 200 tenants occupied the adjacent building and sewer water started seeping into his apartments
The 85-year-old reported to the National Environmental Management Authority and public health officials but the authorities closed his apartments instead.
His daughter Roselyn Ndolo said that officials ordered the closure citing that the apartments were a health hazard.
When contacted by journalists, Kitengela Public Health Officer Benard Kiluva stated that he did not have enough information on the matter since he was recently posted to the area.
Kajiado NEMA Director Joseph Kopejo promised to visit the site to probe the matter.
NEMA prohibits any person from discharging any effluent from sewer treatment works, industry or other sources into the environment without a valid effluent discharge license issued by the authority.
Many landlords in the country have been contravening these provisions by either discharging untreated effluent into a public sewer or discharging it into the environment without an effluent discharge license.
