Time flies with great content! Renew in to keep enjoying all our premium content.
Prime
Telposta scheme spends Sh532m to ward off grabbers and collect rent
TelPosta Pension Scheme (TPS) members in attendance during the unveiling of its new brand identity and the launch of a nationwide Member Education Initiative held on March 17, 2026 at the KICC.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
The Telposta Pension Scheme has little cash holdings and has invested 83 percent of its assets in properties, reducing its liquidity and diversification while breaching asset allocation rules by the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA).
It has also spent Sh532.3 million in legal costs to enforce rent payment and ward off grabbers, underlining the burden of overinvestment in real estate.
The pension scheme says it has taken steps to gradually address the portfolio imbalance, primarily through sale of its properties in various parts of the country.
A new report by trustees of the scheme shows that most of its assets were held in properties at Sh12.2 billion in 2025. This is 83 percent of the total assets of Sh14.76 billion in the period. It also held only Sh7.1 million in cash and bank deposits while the average monthly benefits paid to members run at about Sh64.6 million.
Telposta says it is taking action to address the current asset allocation.
“Eighty-three percent of your scheme's money is in property –far above the 30 percent recommended by the RBA,” reads the report.
“The trustees have a clear, approved plan to rebalance this gradually. Your pension continues to be paid on time throughout this process.”
Telposta last year put tens of properties on sale to kick off the portfolio rebalancing. They included bungalows, apartments and vacant plots in Nairobi, Nyahururu, Nyandarua, Nanyuki, Karatina, Nyeri, Kericho and Sotik.
“Property has been one of the scheme's most significant investments. The full and detailed property holdings report has been prepared by Genafrica Asset Managers and will be shared with you at the meetings,” say the trustees.
The excess allocation to properties has hurt Telposta’s returns over the years. The pension scheme has listed rent default and legal costs –in relation to recovering unpaid rent and fighting grabbers— as the main drawbacks to its overreliance on land and buildings to generate returns.
Telposta was owed rent totaling Sh276.9 million in the year ended December 2024. These comprised the Jogoo Road property where the rent default was Sh159.6 million, Bombolulu (Sh57.3 million), Elgeyo Marakwet (Sh36 million) and Makande (Sh23.7 million).
“The scheme won some of these court cases. After evicting non-paying and illegal occupants, we have invested in renovating these properties so they can again generate rental income,” the trustees say.
Telposta spent Sh532.3 million on property-related legal costs from 2001 to 2025.
“Legal costs are higher because the Scheme had to engage –and win— many court cases to recover properties from grabbers, non-paying tenants and illegal occupants,” the report says.
Members of the scheme are mostly former employees of East African Posts & Telecommunication Corporation, Kenya Posts & Telecommunication Corporation and the subsequent corporations Telkom Kenya Limited, Postal Corporation of Kenya and Communications Authority of Kenya.
