After rains, it's a dog's life for Muthoni as demolition threw her to squalor

The sting of poverty for Anastasia Muthoni (not her real name) has now been worsened by demolition of her two roomed mabati structure in Mukuru Kwa Rebuen, plunging her to squalor that she has strenuously fought to survive.

And as the rains seem to have subsided, it's a dog's life for Muthoni after demolition threw her to the deep end.

The distressed woman had her household items destroyed and has had to distribute her four children to relatives and friends to live with them in the meantime as she starts life afresh.

She requested her real name not used in this article so as not to compromise the help she is receiving from a local CBO in the slum.

“Don’t mention me but please tell those powerful people that we are suffering. How do you demolish my just two rooms mabati house that I’m barely affording rent for? Now I’m homeless and cannot support myself to live, let alone my children. I understand why people commit suicide,” Muthoni said during the conversation.

The 36-year-old woman does laundry for neighbours to survive. Working with her two almost teenage children, the laundry business would put food on their table, pay up their Sh1,000 a month rent and generally, get them to schools and get by with life.

This was until the heavy rains and demolition bulldozers arrived on May 3.

“They have turned my life upside down. Now do I start by buying basic household items to live or  put food on the table?” she posed.

“Poverty is so dehumanising. If I lived in a permanent house in some rich estate, I’m sure the bulldozers would not have come for me. Today I have nothing because even these clothes on me are borrowed from my sister,” she said.

Muthoni said that on the day her house was demolished, she had gone to wash clothes for a client in Mukuru Kwa Njenga. She had gone with her two daughter to help with the work which would pay her Sh2,200. The children that remained behind did not have means to reach her when the bulldozers came flattening the place.

She says that that morning, she woke up excited when the client called, not knowing they would end the day with the money, tired from the exhausting job and homeless with nothing except the clothes on their body.

“My children were happy that we would have a better meal that day, even beef and chapati because they knew after getting paid, we would afford it. But it all went the opposite as we ended up dejected, stressed and suicidal.”

“It is a pain, shame and disappointment I can never wish on anyone, including those who did this to us.”

Muthoni says that a small CBO has come to her aide, giving her used clothes to get by, and once in a while send her some little cash to afford food as she reconstructs her life. 

The demolition exercise was ordered by the Cabinet after a whole day's meeting in State House on April 30, with President William Ruto ordering the people living on riparian areas to vacate in 48 hours starting May 1.

"We have agreed that those who are living near rivers in what we call the riparian reserves should vacate stating tomorrow, we will be issuing a notice," the President said.

Ruto said they will not allow Kenyans to continue risking their lives as the heavy rains are expected to continue.

The Cabinet further said even though the government is advocating for voluntary evacuation, all those who remain within the areas affected by the directive will be relocated forcibly in the interest of their safety.

Last week, Interior CS Kithure Kindiki  confirmed that since the demolition exercise targeting people living within site of water ways in Nairobi, some 181,000 people have been moved.

Kindiki said most people who have built structures on riparian spaces have for a long time disregarded the country’s planning laws.

He said the current administration will not take the matter lightly and all those who live or have businesses on riparian land must move, or have the government use force on them to vacate.

It is this force that has rendered people like Muthoni to now live in squalor.

“Many of us in this country have disregarded our planning laws, we’ve encroached on riparian reserves and the floods today are becoming more vicious and more dangerous because of our inability to protect our riparian corridors,” Kindiki said.

“This time around, the government has ordered all those people who have constructed houses, businesses those who are farming in riparian corridors to vacate and if they don’t, we will remove them by force.”