The National Assembly Public Investments on Social Services, Administration and Agriculture committee chaired by Hon. Emmanuel Wangwe (Navakholo) has been told that a rival group which had been claiming the 10-acre land had been paying for the land rates and rent for the piece of land.

According to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Elijah Wachira this was discovered when officers from the Fund went to make rates payments at the Ministry of Lands and the Nairobi County Government offices.

The Committee was told that NHIF officials discovered that an individual by the name of Mr. Peter Laparakwo had been making payments totaling Kshs.514, 330. Interestingly, Mr. Leparakwo had been issued with payment receipts even though a similar amount had also been paid to the Government by NHIF.

At the same time, the Committee has started investigations into the construction of Kshs.3.9 billion multi-storey car park in Nairobi by NHIF. The carpark is a seven-story building with five basement floors which is designed to accommodate 780 cars.  

Hon. Wangwe sought to know why the construction cost of the project had increased from Kshs. 2.1 billion to Kshs. 3.9 billion. 

“We need to be told what drove up the cost of the project to the point where billions were paid just for consultancy,” Hon. Wangwe said.

According to the fund’s submission, it had resorted to building a resource centre and the billions were paid towards legal fees and arbitration, feasibility study, quantity survey costs, architectural work and design, electrical engineering, civil and mechanical engineering and NCC and NEMA approvals, but the project never took off. NHIF then opted to build the car park.