Nairobi County Forced To Shut Down Popular Freemasons’ Sanctuary

Nairobi County Government raided the Grand Lodge of East Africa’s Freemasons’ Hall on Nyerere Road in Nairobi city centre over land rate arrears amounting to Ksh.19 million.

The officials, led by Health CEC Suzanne Silantoi, Chief Officer office the Governor Priscilla Mahinda and Chief Officer for Housing Lydia Mathia, who forms a team in a county campaign targeting rate defaulters across the capital, raided the Sanctuary, 14th May.

“This particular premises owes Nairobi County over Ksh.19 million in land rate arrears,” Silantoi said.

“We will not only be clamping properties belonging to defaulters, but we are also moving to disconnect services such as water and sewer lines where necessary.” she added.

The county officials observed that the Freemasons’ Hall was clamped following due process, including the issuance of demand notices and public warnings.

“Before any clamping is done, we issue demand notices and publish the same in local dailies instructing landowners to settle outstanding rates,” Silantoi explained. “Failure to comply gives us the legal mandate to clamp.”

Chief Officer Lydia Mathia noted that while the enforcement may inconvenience tenants, the law permits the county to disconnect services for non-compliant property owners.

“Disconnection of such services is within the law,” she said. “If you can’t pay land rates, how do you expect to benefit from county services? It is unfortunate that tenants may suffer due to their landlords’ negligence.”

According to County records, out of approximately 256,000 parcels of land registered in Nairobi, only 50,000 are currently up to date with their land rates—representing a compliance rate of just 20 percent.

According to the city county, it stands to recover up to Ksh.10 billion in unpaid land rates. Property owners who are in arrears will have their buildings marked, clamped, and notices issued to tenants, advising them to redirect rent payments directly to the Nairobi County revenue account until the debts are cleared.

The raid was part of an ongoing countywide operation targeting defaulters, as the revenue department intensifies efforts to collect about Sh10 billion in the next two months—out of the total Sh50 billion owed.

While leading the operation on Tuesday, Mr Njoroge said they will be merciless this year, adding that the waiver period has been ignored by hundreds of landowners.

“We have come to start our clampdown activity. We are clamping down plot number 209, which owes the county around four million shillings. We are going to put a notice on the building that this property belongs to Nairobi City County until all the debts have been cleared,” Mr Njoroge said.

The East Africa’s Freemasons’ Hall. PHOTO: CURTESY

The raid was part of an ongoing countywide operation targeting defaulters, as the revenue department intensifies efforts to collect about Sh10 billion in the next two months—out of the total Sh50 billion owed.

While leading the operation on Tuesday, Mr Njoroge said they will be merciless this year, adding that the waiver period has been ignored by hundreds of landowners.

“We have come to start our clampdown activity. We are clamping down plot number 209, which owes the county around four million shillings.

We are going to put a notice on the building that this property belongs to Nairobi City County until all the debts have been cleared,” Mr Njoroge said.

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