Tanzania to put up 22-floor twin towers in Nairobi's Upper Hill

The Tanzanian government is building a 22-floor two-tower complex in Nairobi’s Upper Hill area that will house its Kenyan embassy as well as residences and office rental units.

The project is an investment by Tanzania’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF) as it seeks to earn the government foreign currency while saving government rental expenses for the chancery and embassy staff housing.

Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs Minister January Makamba and his Kenyan counterpart Musalia Mudavadi were at the project’s ground-breaking ceremony on Tuesday.

“We seek to use professional and world-class real estate entities to develop these assets to earn income for the government and uplift the quality of our embassies and embassy staff housing,” Makamba said.

The Nairobi project is part of the first phase of Tanzania’s long-term plan that will see it also erect similar properties in Kigali, Rwanda; Kinshasa in the DR Congo; London in the U.K.; New York in the U.S. and Zambia’s capital Lusaka.

On his part, Mudavadi termed the scheme a significant step in reinforcing Kenya’s diplomatic relations with its southern neighbour.

“As a government, we will work with all the planning agencies to give you support to avoid any bureaucracies that can delay the process," Mudavadi added in a statement issued by his ministry.

Located just 4 kilometres away from the Nairobi city centre, Upper Hill is a commercial district which has seen increased construction in recent years, especially skyscrapers.

It is home to luxury chained-brand hotels such as Sarova Panafric and Radisson Blu; foreign embassies like the British High Commission; and hosts regional headquarters of multinationals and organisations such as Huawei, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Currently, the Tanzanian High Commission in Nairobi is hosted at Reinsurance Plaza in the capital’s central business district.

According to Tanzania’s foreign ministry, the country spends about 29 billion shillings (about Ksh.1.4 billion) a year to rent embassy offices and embassy staff housing.