The future now looks bright for Kamuthi Housing Cooperative Society, whose Sh3 billion gated community project was seriously threatened after it ran into financial problems. Its operations nearly stagnated due to poor infrastructure, but not anymore, thanks to the construction of the new Thika bypass. The 25km road is part of the linkage between Garissa Road and Thika Superhighway and passes just a kilometre away from the firm’s 1,200 acre Buffalo Hills and Gold Village project in Kilimambogo, Thika, whose operations had almost stalled due to inaccessibility as a result of bad roads
According to Mr Bernard Kung’u, the chairman of the firm valued at Sh4 billion that has interests in Kiambu and Murang’a, the road that was commissioned by Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia in May has already boosted the project’s operations, including sales. DIRE STRAITS “There is always a traffic snarl-up in Thika and whenever we are taking potential buyers to the land, it takes them more than two hours to leave the town.
Besides, the access road from the main road to the project has been horrible and this has been discouraging them from investing with us,” he said, adding: “But the construction of the road will not only sort out the problem but also boost the project’s value,” Mr Kung’u said of the road that is meant to ease traffic in Thika Town.
This comes at a time when the firm’s officials have embarked on an elaborate strategy to restore confidence by solving the internal challenges that have hit the firm in the recent past. Established in 1964 as a farmers’ co-operative society with 152 members before amending its by-laws in 2010 to venture into real estate, Kamuthi has been in dire financial straits after investors failed to participate in its projects as envisaged due to the infrastructural challenges.
To further improve accessibility, the Komu-Mangu Road that links Thika Superhighway to the proposed Greater Eastern Bypass, which transverses the project, is being improved through a partnership between the Kiambu County government and the society. The poor accessibility, Mr Kung’u said, had affected the project, leading to tough financial times for the 7,000-member society that has more than 3,000 external clients, almost rendering their model of operation unsustainable due to their inability to service bank loans totalling nearly to Sh700 million.
Under their socio-economic model, Mr Kun’gu said after the society buys land, members are allocated half of it at a lower cost while the rest of the land is floated on the market for the public at market rate. The sales proceeds are used to cover the balances of the cost, as well as put into place infrastructure including water, road network and electricity.
