Billions of shillings belonging to workers’ retirement savings remain tied up in buildings that have not generated any value, after the Auditor General flagged several National Social Security Fund assets that have been left idle in Nairobi’s central business district.
In her review of accounts for the year ending June 2025, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu reported that at least five prime properties owned by the fund were not utilised throughout the period under audit, contrary to its own investment rules.
“The balance includes five properties located within Nairobi’s CBD, valued at Sh4,022,000,000 as at June 30, 2025. The properties remained idle during the year under review, contrary to Section 1.5.2 of the Fund Investment Policy Statement, 2020, which requires that assets be structured and invested prudently at all times,” Gathungu said in her audit for the year to June 2025.
The assets account for about 11.3 per cent of the fund’s Sh35.4 billion property holdings. The audit noted that keeping the buildings unused went against the fund’s own guidelines and created exposure to loss, adding that “beneficial ownership of the properties could not be confirmed,” which leaves room for possible misuse.
The concerns come at a time when the fund’s leadership has admitted it is dealing with long-standing land ownership disputes linked to earlier investment decisions.
During the annual general meeting held on Friday, NSSF Chief Executive Officer Charles Koros acknowledged that some of the title documents held by the institution have little value because the parcels were never legally available for purchase.
“We have a big challenge because some of the titles for the land holdings we have are just mere pieces of paper. Some of the properties we have are on forest land, we have two on Ngong Road, others on road reserves along Jogoo Road, and many other issues,” Koros said.
Gathungu also highlighted a separate case involving a Sh115 million plot in Upper Hill where the title issued to the fund was later cancelled through a gazette notice after it emerged that the land had been reserved for public use.
“However, the title deed was revoked through Kenya Gazette Notice No. 3460 of April 1, 2010 because, although the title was allocated and issued to a private developer, the parcel had been reserved for public purposes in accordance with the Constitution, the Government Land Act (Cap 280) and the Trust Land Act (Cap 288),” she said.
That dispute remains before the courts.
Koros further disclosed that the fund had earlier been misled into purchasing land belonging to the Kenya Prisons Service in Eldoret and now intends to compensate the agency.
“Court rulings are also another pain point. They are always going against us because we never exercised prudent investment way back,” the NSSF CEO said.
