Nakuru County Governor Lee Kinyanjui has condemned the manner in which tens of multi-million business premises on Kenya Railways Corporation land in Nakuru were destroyed.
Kinyanjui noted that the tenants had legal lease contracts with KR, some for between 15-30 years yet the latter evicted them in an inhumane matter.
“Adequate notice should have been given to the businessmen who have for years invested heavily with some still servicing loans,” the governor said.
While conveying his empathy with the business owners who include car dealers, hoteliers, garage operators, and petroleum dealers, Kinyanjui said KR should have allowed its tenants time to move and avoid property and job losses.
He added that his administration was not notified of the ongoing demolitions which have seen modern business premises, some only weeks old pulled down and more than 2000 people lose their jobs.
“The destruction is by the Kenya Railway Corporation and other agencies, County Government of Nakuru is a stranger in all these and it was no even notified,” he said.
Speaking at his Milimani office when he clarified that the seemingly high confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Nakuru were due to increased, and targeted testing.
“The manner the demolition was done leading to loss of property worth millions of shillings is inconsistent with the need to protect private property and encourage investors."
Demolitions started on Sunday morning, hundreds of people taking advantage to loot building materials and other goods.
The exercise is to create space for the Sh3.8 million rehabilitation of the Nakuru-Kisumu meter gauge rail line and the expansion of the Great North Road from Rironi in Kiambu to Mau Summit in Nakuru.
KR has maintained that it gave sufficient time for the tenants to vacate its land after issuing notice on March 11 but the tenants insist that they were not notified.
