Over 300 families evicted from disputed Mombasa 12-acre land
Reuben Mwambingu @reubenmwambingu
More than 300 families have been evicted from a 12-acre land in Utange area, Mombasa following an ownership dispute.
The affected families alleged that police and a group of youth raided their homes at around 5am on Tuesday and began demolishing their houses before razing them down.
Elizabeth Masha, one of those evicted, claimed she has lived in the area with her family for decades and the evictions had no basis.
“I have been here for all those years. My children were born and raised here and some even married here yet today we are being evicted,” she said.
Her son Darius Kazungu, 38, said his father acquired the land from an Arab who originally owned the land on lease.
“After the lease expired some many years back, the Arab gave my father the land and went away.
After my father died in 2016 we started seeing people claiming to be the owners of this land and that is where the dispute began,” he said.
According to a copy of a court order on a Civil suit No 1493 of 2019 obtained by People Daily, pitting Shida Dzitu Kalume and Khamisi Chondo Sudi as plaintiffs and Raphael Lewela Mbinga, OCS Bamburi police station and Kisauni Deputy County Commissioner and OCPD Kisauni as defendants, Mombasa Chief Magistrate Court had issued an injunction restraining the defendants from “wrongfully entering, trespassing, demolition and harassing occupants pending hearing and determination of this application…”
But the residents alleged that the defendants have constantly continued to openly act in contravention of the orders by sending police and hired goons to evict them.
But the Kisauni Sub County Police Commander Julius Kiragu dismissed the families claiming to be the rightful owners of the land in question as conmen, saying they have no documents to claim ownership of the land.
