Embakasi residents ask court to stop KP from demolishing their structures

Some Embakasi residents have gone to court to stop Kenya Power from demolishing their properties.

The 609 residents of Daylight, near Saika Estate, say the demolition will render them homeless and over 100,000 workers jobless.

They accuse the state power company of not serving them with notice that they had encroached on electricity wayleave.

“The said demolition offends our constitutional rights as property owners as it is unreasonable, arbitrary and without any legal justification,” they say in court documents.

The properties earmarked for demolition are near Saika Estate, Omega, Chemichemi and  Mwengenyi.

KP, through lawyer Emily Kirui, says the applicants encroached on its wayleaves and built structures directly below the transmission powerlines.

“The applicants ought to have known that the power wayleave area measuring 67.04 metres was reserved and registered as public land and as such no private developments could be undertaken or authorised within the said area,” Kirui says.

The parastatal says that the structures erected within the reserved wayleave are illegal and any purported allocation of the area for settlement, occupation or approval by the Nairobi city county is irregular.

It has dismissed the accusation that the 609 occupants were not given notice. “We issued the notices way back in December last year and further allowed adequate and ample time for compliance and we did not commence demolition until almost five months past expiration of notice.”

Further, it says the purpose of the removal of the illegal structures is premised on the need to ensure the safety of the public in the event of an electrical accident.

“Some of the applicants have obtained and continue to use illegal power supply connections to their detriment and prejudicing the safe and efficient supply of electricity to the country and to their peril as to electricity hazards,” Kirui says.

According to the documents in court, the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (Ketraco) requires a clearance of 15 metres on either side for 132KV transmission tower.

Ketraco is a parastatal formed in 2008 to be in charge of high voltage electricity transmission infrastructure, until then in hands of KP. 

The 132KV line serves Nairobi, Coast and Mount Kenya regions.

The affected structures range from single dwelling units, flats, commercial buildings, small industrial units, schools to churches.

The owners want the court to declare the intended demolition a violation of their rights to property.

Also sought is an order to quash the verbal or any other form of notice issued by KP threatening to cause the demolition.