State to resettle evicted Nairobi slum dwellers
by Alvin Kariuki
The government yesterday directed that all residents of Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums in Nairobi who were recently evicted to be resettled within 30 days.
Cabinet Secretaries Fred Matiang’i (Interior) and Farida Karoney (Lands) who delivered President Uhuru Kenyatta’s order said the government will expedite negotiations with private owners of the land at the centre of the dispute to ensure no more demolitions.
Matiang’i said a team is already in place to ensure verification of documents is done before the residents are resettled.
“We want everyone who is currently displaced to go back immediately. The instructions are that we immediately cease every activity in Mukuru Kwa Njenga until everyone has been resettled,” said Matiang’i.
Also present during the meeting were Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho, Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai and Nairobi Metropolitan Services Director General Lt-General Mohamed Badi among other leaders.
The Interior CS said while the Government respects private property and court-ordered evictions from disputed lands, it was also obliged to balance the enforcement of such rights and welfare of displaced families.
“We respect court orders, but we will implement them in a framework that also respects the interests of the people we serve. We have called some of our officers to account,” he said.
Karoney said an audit of the title deeds held by the residents will be undertaken to regularise land tenure and informal property holdings in the area.
Affected persons
Cabinet Secretaries said only surveyors from the Ministry of Lands will be involved in the undertaking to avoid conflict of interest and interference by cartels.
President Kenyatta is said to have visited the slum on December 27 at night and met the affected persons, who told him some people in his government had grabbed the land and allocated themselves after evicting them.
One person was shot dead and six others were injured in a clash with police.
Two senior police officers have been suspended to pave way for investigations into the saga.
Demolitions in Mukuru started on October 12, 2021, where residents living along road reserves on Catherine Ndereba Road were asked to vacate with immediate effect as the government commenced demolitions to pave way for construction of the Nairobi Expressway.
In August 2017, the Nairobi County government declared the Mukuru informal settlement a Special Planning Area and approved an Integrated Development Plan on infrastructural facelift to improve access to water and sanitation services, modern housing, and electricity connectivity.
The recarpeting and upgrading of 70 kilometres of roads to cabro and bitumen, construction of a 24-bed Level Three hospital in Mukuru Kwa Njenga and Mukuru Kayaba, construction of 15,000 housing units under the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme and the issuance of 1,329 title deeds was to be undertaken under the programme.
