In 1985, the then-Nairobi City Council (NCC) took a loan from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to build Umoja Estate.
The 212 million loan was supposed to be fully paid in 2014 but NCC defaulted.
It took the intervention of the guarantor, The National Treasury to clear the loan which had now accrued billions in interest and principal amount.
In 2020, the National treasury paid Sh2.5 billion to USAID, clearing the loan.
The History of Umoja Estate
Umoja estate was built by the Nairobi City Commission in the 1970s mainly to provide housing for the growing urban population.
As it grew, it quickly became a place of refuge for dissidents and also a place that resisted the newly established govt of the late Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi.
Umoja was a clean and decent estate which has since grown into a slum-like city with many unplanned buildings, some clearly on road reserves blocking what would be link roads.
During the 80s, Umoja was in the middle of the resistance movement against Moi.
“It was a clean, decent estate. Most graduate civil servants wanted to be there. We were musing over ideas. We brought critical student politics into the working world. But while at the university we had much more freedom to question the government, that was not the case on the streets, especially if you worked for the government,” a civil servant who spoke to the Daily Nation in 2018 said.
Most of these people lived in Umoja, and were directly or indirectly involved in the struggle. The meetings took in pubs nestled in the famous “L” and “M” courts in Umoja, such as Ha Jacho, Kwa Wairimu and Mutindwa.
The underground movements were organised in cells of about five people, and the cells did not necessarily report to a higher level.
