Freedom fighter’s house demolished along Kangundo Road
A house that was demolished on Wednesday, January 10, morning belonged to a freedom fighter.
The two-floor flat popularly known as Mama Uhuru was located along Kangundo Road at the Kangundo Road market and belonged to relatives of Kenya’s freedom fighter Mwanaisha Bilali.
The freedom fighter was popularly known as Mama Uhuru before her death on September 9, 2009.
According to her relatives and witnesses, the county government descended on the flat at around 2am with bulldozers and ordered the occupants to only remove their children before demolishing it.
The victims accused the county government staffers of assaulting them during the forceful evictions while claiming that they were given the said land on which they had erected the structure during the late President Mwai Kibaki’s reign in 2002 and they constructed the house and settled in it in 2005.
Before relocating there, they had been evicted from a house at Pumwani flats.
“We were evicted from Pumwani flats and reallocated to this parcel where we have settled since 2005. We have been living here with threats despite holding proper ownership documents,” one of the relatives said.
The victims said there was no eviction order to that effect yet they have been paying land rates to the Nairobi City County administration.
This is not the first time that they have been threatened with eviction and demolitions.
In 2019, former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko’s administration also threatened to demolish it.
One of her granddaughters said she died while pursuing justice on the land she was given by former President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2002 when he served as the Minister for Local Government in the late President Kibaki’s administration.
The family said the situation worsened after the Nairobi City government constructed a new market adjacent to the property.
Nairobi County is yet to issue a statement on why the house was demolished.