Demonstrators on Saturday ejected a private developer who allegedly grabbed hospital land in Highridge, Nairobi.
The developer has started putting up a 24-storey residential building on the half-acre parcel.
A person found at the site was assaulted by the protesters who destroyed temporary structures and earth-movers digging up the land in preparation for construction.
Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi led the protesters.
The land housed a dispensary which was run down before the property was allegedly sold to a developer. The developer demolished it and took over the land but Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko repossessed it in August last year.
There had been plans to rebuild the county dispensary and a nursery school before the land was grabbed several years ago and sold.
Sonko had warned that he will not relent in protecting public land and told grabbers to surrender the parcels or risk being evicted.
Wanyonyi said Sonko should explain his sudden change of heart.
“Sonko recovered this land last year and promised a hospital. But aren't the people issuing building approvals sitting at City Hall?”
The MP said he will continue leading protests until the development stops.
Residents said they have been suffering and forced to seek treatment in Mbagathi and Kenyatta National Hospital because there is no nearby public dispensary.
(Edited by R. Wamochie)
