Kenyans Question the Plan with the Unfinished Yaya Towers Amidst Sale of Biwott’s Yaya Centre

On August 6, 2023, Daily Nation’s News Prime reported on the sale of the Biwott’s owned Yaya Centre that has aroused numerous reactions from Kenyans online.

The family of the late former powerful Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott has sold the iconic Yaya Centre shopping complex in Nairobi to a consortium of investors in a private transaction said to be values at billions of shillings.

The sale price of Yaya, one of Nairobi’s pioneering shopping complexes, is in billions of shillings.

The private transaction saw the Kantaria consortium take over both the Yaya Centre shopping mall as well as the high-end Yaya Apartments and Hotel.

Kenyans claim that the idea was not really consulted so well, questioning whether the family really value generational inheritance, that is being passed from one generation to another.

Should families always sell their hard earned property? Would it hurt if just passed on?

Here are the comments from concerned and probably confused netizens:

@MorogoYahoo

Why sell it? This is how we fail as kalenjins, someone can sell a property which it can be passed to over 100 generations, and it can be a good example in terms of investment.

@Muthoni_____

Why sell it? This is generational wealth they could have given their kids.

@AgolaLinda

I wonder why the unfinished tower has been left standing all these years. Maybe the new owners will change that. It is an eyesore.

@abdimalik_k

The Moment all those mushrooming malls started coming all around and there was no more POWER to deter the relevance of this Icon dipped like a stone falling from the Sky. A well designed and maintained mall indeed.

@dnlkym

what happens to the unoccupied Yaya towers, will it finally come down?

@Kelvinkipkiru12

It's almost like a culture... Now..., when a father. Dies whom in many at times are the pillars of every family...., mambo yanaanza kuenda segemnegem... Next of kins wanaaza kuuza Mali...