City Hall yesterday denied claims it is planning to evict Woodley residents to accommodate its staff.
In a press conference on Sunday, Woodley Residents’ Association, led by chairman Sam Gachagua, accused Governor Evans Kidero and senior county officials of illegally planning to evict them.
Gachagua claimed the county is secretly plotting mass evictions of tenants to accommodate senior county staff.
The residents said they have lived in the estate for more than 50 years and they will oppose any evictions.
But yesterday, City Hall said the claims are unfounded.
Housing executive Christopher Khaemba said Woodley is one of the estates targeted in the multimillion-shilling urban renewal project in which more than 100,000 housing units will be built in the city.
The project will see old one-storey houses in selected estates demolished and replaced with multi-storey houses to accommodate more people and economise on space.
“Those are outrageous claims. In all the estates where we are going to carry out the exercise, all the current tenants will be given money to rent houses elsewhere. And after the completion of the project, they will be the first [people] to be considered,” he said.
There are about 3,000 housing units in Woodley estate and more than 300 belong to the county.
Gachagua said 280 tenants pay rent ranging from Sh14,000 to Sh58,000, depending on the size of the house, to City Hall every month.
Area MCA David Kairu said the residents’ claims are untrue.
Some people in the area are behind the false information to benefit politically, he said.
Khaemba said the Sh300 billion urban renewal project will be carried out in phases, with more than 14,000 housing units expected to be built in seven estates in the first phase.
The houses will be in Old Ngara, Pangani, Jeevanjee-Bachelors, Ngong Road, Inspectorate Staff quarters, Uhuru and Suna Road estates.
Last year, Kidero said there are only 535 houses in the seven estates targeted in the first phase.
“These houses are very old and were constructed horizontally, occupying a lot of space. There is a lot of space, about 60 acres. We will use the space to construct 15-floor flats,” he said.