Businessman Patrick Nderitu is counting loss for the second time in two months after City Hall pulled down his Pimp My Ride car wash before dawn on Thursday.
The demolition started at 2 am and witnesses claimed that Governor Mike Sonko was at the scene.
“I was called by our manager at 2 am and he told me that the premises have been demolished. We had no time to salvage any of our items. Everything is destroyed,” George Karanja told the Star.
Ken Yator, a shoe shiner, said he saw some City Hall officers supervising the demolition.
The early morning job followed a Nairobi court's Tuesday decision not to stop City Hall from demolishing the car wash.
The court directed Nderitu to file and serve the respondents with his application and appear in court yesterday for further directions.
The hearing is scheduled for today.
City Hall had on July 2 served the businessman with a seven-day enforcement notice which indicated that he was carrying out illegal construction on property 209/908 at the junction of Muindi Mbingu Street and Kenyatta Avenue
Nderitu on Thursday said the demolition was connected with a land case in Buruburu that he won.
“All these are in connection with the land in Buruburu because I won that case, so I'm sure the governor was not happy,” Nderitu said.
Nderitu also believes the demolitions are based on personal issues and vendetta against him. “It seems like there is something he wants us to talk about. I really hope I'm going to win this case too either way,” he said.
The rivalry between Sonko and Nderitu became public on May 25 when goons descended on Glad Tidings Crusade Ministry church compound in Buru Buru on which a school stood and started demolishing it.
Sonko confronted the goons and stopped the demolition. He accused Nderitu of trying to grab the church property.
“I will personally pursue the matter in court to ensure justice is done for the genuine owners of the property,” Sonko said on his Facebook page.
Two days later – on May 27 – Pimp My Ride was demolished. Apart from the car wash, there were an MPesa shop, a photocopying shop (Chapa Copy) and an urban wear stall.
County director of Operations Eva Nyambuto declined to comment on "anything concerning demolitions".
Last month Nderitu started rebuilding the car wash, which is situated where Simmers Club once stood. Simmers was flattened in the middle of the night in March last year.
– fmm
