City ward reps up in arms against KP and KR over demolitions

More than 40,000 people in Nairobi's Mihang'o and Njiru wards are now homeless after their houses were demolished by Kenya Power.

The power distributor accuses those affected of building on way leaves and sewer lines.

The demolitions have attracted the ire of MCAs who, on Labour Day, said that state agencies had ignored a presidential directive against demolitions.

Kenya Railways Corporation is another parastatal criticised by the ward representatives, among them county leader of Majority Abdi Guyo.

The MCAs say that President Uhuru Kenyatta had, through the Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua, stopped the demolitions. So had Governor Mike Sonko. 

Most of those affected lived along the power line corridor from Ruai, Utawala, and Mowlem and Mihango in Eastlands.

“It beats logic that the government is demolishing when it is busy looking for money to build houses under the Big Four Agenda,” Guyo said.

He acknowledged that those who had built on the way leave and over sewer lines should move, but he decried the manner in which they are evicted.

“I want to announce here that demolitions will not continue. What they have demolished is enough because we cannot sit back and witness injustice done against our people,” he said.

Mihango MCA Paul Kados complained that state agencies were demolishing houses yet it was their representatives who surveyed the area before the houses were built.

“People went to banks and borrowed money. Where was Kenya Power when these houses were being built?" he asked.

The ward representatives were speaking in Matopeni ward.

Most Eastlands landowners were allocated the property by the defunct City Council through balloting. Many do not have ownership documents.

Last year, the government launched a land titling programme for Eastlands, but the exercise ran into headwinds after the county started demanding Sh30,000 per plot before issuing the titles.

Roysambu MCA Peter Warutere asked the government to go slow on flattening the houses, warning that Jubilee risks being voted out in 2022 if it continues to bring down the houses.

His Kayole North counterpart Moses Mwangi threatened to mobilise residents to demonstrate against demolitions in their wards.

Residents lamented that they had incurred huge losses. They said that those whose houses have been earmarked for demolitions lived in fear of finding their homes flattened.

“Some of us are already removing doors, windows and valuables before the bulldozers land on our houses. We have seen the inhumane treatment of our colleagues. They were thrown out and their houses demolished,” Francis Maingi said.

Esther Supaki said, “We cannot continue living like this. We voted this government and it must be sensitive about our plight. Our children are not going to school and banks are on our necks because we cannot repay loans.”

Last month, bulldozers flattened buildings in Githurai 45 to reclaim a 250-acre public property.

A three-storeyed building, a car bazaar and a garage were among properties pulled down.

The owners are said to have built them on land set as Zimmerman Settlement Scheme.

In March, at least 3,000 houses were brought down in Mihang’o and Njiru by Kenya Power.

A total of 15,250 structures in informal settlements in Mukuru kwa Njenga, Imara Daima, Mukuru kwa Reuben and Sinai village have been brought down since December last year.

Some of the illegally built structures are in Umoja Innercore, Tassia, Mathare, Tena, Umoja One and Baraka in Embakasi.

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