- Ruto broke the ground for the slum upgrading project in late October last year.
- The project is modelled on monthly-renting and eventual ownership by the tenants. The payment period is 20 years.
Image: FILE
President William Ruto’s affordable housing project in Kibra could run into headwinds after some of the Nubian community members opposed the idea of leasing their own land.
The Nubian rights forum, a lobby championing the interests of the minority community, has sought a court injunction to stop the project, claiming it is seeking to take their land away from them unfairly.
Ruto broke the ground for the slum upgrading project in late October last year.
The project is modelled on monthly-renting and eventual ownership by the tenants. The payment period is 20 years.
But Shaffie Ali Hussein, the leader of the community lobby, claims the project will take away their 288 acres of land and will eventually turn them into squatters.
Hussein also says the community has an issue with the project’s model that requires tenant renting and eventual ownership of land they already own.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta gave us the trustee land title in 2013 but President Ruto seem determined to change that arbitrarily and unfairly,” he said.
Hussein said he had been appointed to be part of the task force on Nubian land and that he asked difficult questions regarding the project he claims is a ploy to take the land.
“I was part of the task force, but I figure it is a ploy being used to hive off our land,” he said.
“How can you take the Nubian land and then say that they will be given the first priority in the tenancy under the renting arrangement. You can’t take our land and then ask us to pay up the renting to own the houses,” he added.
The government, however, has maintained that the project was above board and inclusive and that no one will be disadvantaged.
Slum upgrading project is not a new drive in the informal settlements. Former President Mwai Kibaki and then Prime Minister Raila Odinga initiated it during the days of Grand Coalition government with a similar arrangement of renting to ownership.
Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga was not available to comment on the claim as he did not respond to calls nor text message inquiring about it.
But the lobby said if its members will be subjected to the same arrangement like everybody else, then they stand to be disadvantaged because the land belongs to them, Hussein said. .
“They are using Nubian elites to amend the trust title deed through the backdoor but we will not allow it."
Hussein said that large swathes of land have been taken a way from the community through such initiatives and eventually, they end up being marginalised.
If the trend sustains, it could make them squatters.
Hussein said their agitation was not meant to stand in the way of government development ambitions.
"We are only agitating for our rights," he said.
"We want to partner with the government, but only technical arrangements. We are weary of bureaucrats taking advantage of government projects to grab land and irregularly allocate the houses to themselves and their families. This is what we don't want," the activist said.
-Edited by SKanyara