• Tenants of the two estates complained they were not consulted by the county government before being issued with vacate notices.
• Odiado said that the county has a responsibility to provide housing to all residents and not its staff alone.
Image: HILTON OTENYO
The Kakamega government has served three-month vacate notices to residents of Amalemba and Otiende estates.
The notices, dated May 2, asked tenants who are not employees of the county government to vacate the houses by July 31, 2023.
The decision was made during a cabinet meeting held on April 4.
The meeting, chaired by Governor Fernandes Barasa, resolved that all houses in the two housing schemes be reserved for county employees and that no staff be asked to vacate immediately.
“In view of the above, you are hereby issued with a three-month notice with effect from May 2, 2023 to July 31, 2023, to vacate county house No. 247, failing which the county will proceed to evict you from the house without further reference to yourself,” a notice sent to one of the tenants and seen by the Star read.
“You are directed to hand over the keys to the house to the county director of housing on or before July 31, 2023, at the county housing department offices located adjacent Kakamega municipal offices.”
The notice was signed by acting county director of housing Calvin Marangu.
It was copied to county secretary Boniface Okoth, lands, housing, urban areas and physical planning executive Peninah Mukabane and chief officer of housing and urban development Patrick Butichi.
The Amalemba and Otiende housing schemes were constructed by the former Kakamega municipal council through financing by the National Housing Corporation (NHC) in the early 1960s.
The municipal council then defaulted on its obligation to service the facilities, forcing the corporation to take over management of the two estates to recover its money through collection of rent.
NHC handed back two schemes to the county government in November last year. The corporation had earlier handed over the Mudiri estate to the county government.
In a letter by J W Agutu, on behalf of NHC managing director dated October 25, 2022, the corporation notified all tenants that it had handed back the management of the two housing schemes to the county government effective November 1, 2022.
“You are informed that effective November 1, 2022, all rent payments and other management issues shall be forwarded to the county government of Kakamega,” the notice read.
A letter by acting chief officer of lands, housing and urban areas Patrick Likavo dated October 27, 2022, directed all tenants in Otiende and Amalemba housing schemes to pay rent to the county accounts at the Kenya Commercial Bank's Kakamega branch.
Image: HILTON OTENYO
Tenants of the two estates complained they were not consulted by the county government before being issued with vacate notices.
Otiende Self Help group chairman Moses Odiado said the tenants will be meeting with their lawyers within the week to respond to the vacate notices.
Odiado said the county has a responsibility to provide housing to all residents and not its staff alone.
“When the two housing estates, together with Mudiri scheme where tenants have already been removed, were being put up by the municipal council, the main aim was to provide housing to Kakamega residents and not county employees alone,” he said.
“We were just slapped with notices giving us three months to quit without any public participation despite the fact that we have been maintaining the houses for the last 30 years using our own money because the houses had been neglected. It is unfair,” Odiado said.
He said the county did not bother to hold any meeting with the tenants since NHC handed the two schemes to the devolved unit in November and only issued them with notices to vacate the houses.
Earlier attempts by the county government to evict tenants from the two estates, together with those who occupied houses at Mudiri estate to pave the way for the construction of 4,000 affordable housing units at a cost of Sh6 billion in mid 2021 was resisted by the tenants who were backed by NHC.
Residents petitioned the Senate to stop the county from inhumanely evicting them from their houses.
The housing units were to be sold for Sh3 million each on a tenant purchase scheme by the county government.
NHC which managed the three estates, then asked tenants to stay put and continue remitting their rent to the corporation until directed otherwise.
Mudiri scheme on which former Governor Wycliffe Oparanya launched the first phase of construction of affordable houses by an investor, has since been halted by Barasa and the project changed to a county headquarters.