(NAIROBI, KENYA) – The family of former Foreign Affairs minister Munyua Waiyaki has been ordered to surrender four apartments in Nyari it unlawfully took from buyers before renting them out during a long dispute.
Rosslyn House Ltd and Rosslyn House Management Ltd, which are co-owned by the former minister’s kin, have been ordered to hand over the four apartments to their buyers, who had paid for the units in full.
Arbitrator Peter Njeru ruled that the two Rosslyn House firms had no right to give possession of the apartments to Tribe Hospitality Solutions Ltd for letting to members of the public without the consent of the apartment owners.
Mr Njeru said in his decision that Elizabeth Waiyaki had emailed the claimants confirming that they were free to occupy the apartments. Her evidence that they had access and were free to do so was incompatible with the respondents’ later change of locks. He said the respondents spoke with two voices. The argument was also inconsistent with her admission in cross examination that the respondents took possession without the claimants’ consent.
The arbitrator also ruled against the Rosslyn House firms in their decision to change earlier agreed terms which allowed apartment owners to live in their units.
Mr Njeru further faulted Rosslyn House Ltd and Rosslyn House Management Ltd for removing Tamarind Group as the development’s manager and replacing it with Tribe Hospitality Solutions.
Tribe Hospitality Solutions let the four apartments to the public for four months. The Rosslyn House firms have been ordered to disclose how much rental revenue was made during the unlawful letting of the apartments, triggering a fresh dispute.
The Waiyaki family associated firms claim to have collected KES 2.1 million in 20 months, which would mean each unit was let for an average of KES 26,000 per month. That is about $16,200 and £12,800 in total, or about $200 and £158 per unit monthly.
Saveeta Resorts, Mira Hill Ltd and Paramamba Ltd have disputed the figures, arguing that they are inconsistent with rent prices in the upmarket Nyari suburb.
Some terms of the agreement between the Rosslyn House firms and Tribe Hospitality Solutions were kept from apartment owners, which the arbitrator also held was unfair.
Mr Njeru ruled that a party cannot be bound by the terms of a contract whose material commercial terms it has not been allowed to see. He said redaction in that context offends basic principles of consent, of the right to information, and of contract formation. He said no party is bound by secret terms.
The apartments are in Enaki town, a 22 acre residential resort within Nyari in Nairobi County.
Saveeta Resorts Ltd purchased one unit in 2015 and another in 2022. Mira Hill Ltd and Paramamba Ltd each bought one unit in 2015.
The unlawful possession of the apartments is among multiple disputes that the three buyers have had with Rosslyn House Ltd and Rosslyn House Management Ltd since 2015. In arbitration, all the disputed matters have so far been ruled in favour of Saveeta Resorts, Mira Hill Ltd and Paramamba Ltd.
Through Rosslyn House Ltd, the Waiyaki family and other investors developed the apartments within their Enaki town for a reported KES 10 billion. That is about $77.1 million and £61 million.
The residential resort was designed for 450 housing units, a 6.3 acre spiritual garden and several other amenities. The housing units were to be purchased through an off plan model.
When the project began, Rosslyn House Ltd told buyers that the property would be managed by Tamarind Management Ltd, a subsidiary of hospitality collective Tamarind Group, for at least the first seven years after completion. The apartments were initially named in contracts as Tamarind Tree Suites Rosslyn.
The manager would be allowed to lease apartments to third parties, but only after entering into a contract with the unit owners.
Delays in completion of the project triggered the first dispute between Rosslyn House Ltd and Saveeta Resorts, Mira Hill Ltd and Paramamba Ltd. The dispute was resolved with Rosslyn House Ltd eventually discounting each unit from KES 22.5 million to KES 18 million. That is about $173,600 and £137,400 reduced to about $138,900 and £109,900.
After completing construction and handing the units to their owners in 2022, the Rosslyn House firms removed Tamarind Management Ltd and replaced it with Tribe Hospitality Solutions Ltd, which is part of the group that operates the Tribe Hotel and Trademark Hotel.
Following that change, the development was renamed Trademark Suites at Enaki. The change triggered a second dispute with Saveeta Resorts, Mira Hill Ltd and Paramamba Ltd.
The three buyers argued that Tamarind managing the property was among the factors that convinced them to invest in the Nyari apartments. They said they have other units at Tamarind Village in Mombasa, managed by the same group to their satisfaction, which was one reason they bought into the Nyari project.
The change of management, the buyers argued, was done without their consultation or consent. Terms of the agreement between the Rosslyn House firms and Tribe Hospitality Solutions Ltd were withheld from buyers.
Rosslyn House Ltd and Rosslyn House Management Ltd also introduced changes to the operation model. Under the Tamarind Management Ltd model, buyers had three options. They could live in the unit, rent it out directly, or hire Tamarind Management Ltd to let the apartment out on the buyer’s behalf in return for a commission.
Under the Tribe Hospitality Solutions model, apartment owners were only allowed to spend a maximum of 14 nights a year in the units they purchased. Tribe Hospitality Solutions was to take control of marketing and letting the apartments. The rental revenue would then be pooled together and shared among owners.
In January 2023, Saveeta Resorts, Mira Hill and Paramamba requested Rosslyn House and Rosslyn House Management to share leases for signing, with reminders sent in February and May 2023. Rosslyn House only sent the draft leases 14 months later, in March 2024.
The Rosslyn House firms also sent redacted copies of the master service agreement they had entered with Tribe Hospitality Solutions, a move that kept apartment buyers in the dark about the deal between those parties.
Shortly after, the Rosslyn firms forcefully took control of the four apartments bought by Saveeta Resorts, Mira Hill and Paramamba and handed them over to Tribe Hospitality Solutions. At this point, the apartment buyers had not signed the leases, meaning the leases had not been registered with the Lands ministry.
Tribe Hospitality Solutions then changed the door locks and started renting the four apartments to members of the public, triggering a fourth dispute.
Saveeta Resorts, Mira Hill and Paramamba did not know that their units had been rented out until March 9, 2025 when one of their directors, Dilesh Bid, visited the apartments and discovered that the locks had been changed.
As they protested to the Rosslyn House firms and Tribe Hospitality Solutions, the three owners filed a complaint with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. They also filed the arbitration case.
The Rosslyn House firms wanted an alternative to be allowed to sell the apartments to other parties and then refund Saveeta Resorts, Mira Hill and Paramamba. But Mr Njeru declined.
He said that proposal was not open to the respondents unless accepted by the claimants, which they had not. The respondents sold the apartments to the claimants. The claimants paid the entire purchase price. The claimants are the beneficial owners. The respondents cannot resell the claimants’ own apartments over their heads and substitute a refund for the apartments themselves unless they are instructed by the claimants to do so.