No eviction will be carried out in Athi River without court orders, area deputy county commissioner Charles Wambugu has said.
The administrator also warned those engaged in land disputes against attempting to effect court orders without involving the police.
Wambugu said all court eviction orders must be authenticated and executed by officers commanding stations to avoid unnecessary violence and attacks.
“The procedure of enforcing a court order is that whoever has the order for eviction should visit the nearest OCS. The OCS should verify the order and then assign officers to help the party enforce the order,” Wambugu said.
His comments followed an incident where 10 people were attacked and seriously injured by a mob after they attempted to evict a family from disputed land in Ngelani on Tuesday.
The victims were among a group of 30 who were armed with crude weapons. They demolished five houses belonging to the family before they were rounded up by locals. They were rescued by police officers as the others escaped.
“That was a case of a party who claims a portion of the land. The lady claimed she has a court order to evict those occupying the land. As at now, we have yet to confirm the authenticity of that order. She has recorded statement since her attempted eviction caused violence,” Wambugu said.
He spoke at his office in Athi River on Wednesday.
The administrator said no resident will be evicted from any disputed parcel within the subcounty without a court order. He made the assurance after residents from Kanaani slum protested an intended eviction by a local politician.
The slum dwellers said they were living in fear of their houses being demolished.
On Wednesday, they protested to condem a verbal eviction notice issued to them by their chief.
The over 6,000 residents said Athi River chief Nzau Komo on Tuesday visited the slum with ‘bad’ news. He said he had been instructed to inform the dwellers to vacate the land in five days or risk forceful eviction.
They questioned the motive of the intended eviction, saying they have lived on the land for more than two decades.
“Some of us settled on this land 22 years ago. We are legitimate owners of the land where we live and nobody has ever claimed its ownership,” village elder Daniel Maingi said.
The locals said they were not squatters. They said they have allotment letters from the defunct Mavoko Municipal Council.
“We were allocated the land by the government and some of us bought their parcels. We are now being told verbally to vacate without any court order or document to show we don’t own our plots. They have threatened to demolish our houses by Friday,” Maingi said.
He added, “We don’t know why the houses will be demolished. We haven’t been served with any court order or eviction notice. We have just been told to vacate immediately. This information was passed to us by the area chief.”
The residents claim the slum has schools, hospitals and churches. Around 517 plots are on the disputed land. All of them have structures.
The protesters included landlords and their tenants. Some are people who have built their homes on the plots.
The residents said a local politician was claiming ownership of the land.
Wambugu said the residents cannot be evicted from the land without a court order.
Edited by P.O
