Sakaja defends Woodley evictions, cites Sh900,000 compensation
The Nairobi County government has defended the evictions from Woodley Estate, citing 90 days’ notice and compensation of Sh900,000 as well as allotment letters to each homeowner in the 10-acre plot under development in the Sh 10.2 billion Lot 1 of the Affordable Housing Unit project.
In a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the devolved unit and Woodley Estate Lot 1 tenants, seen by the Nation on Sunday, the county government entered into a joint venture agreement with a private developer, M/s Africa Reit Limited, for the redevelopment of 1,975 affordable housing units.
“The developer shall provide the tenants with relocation facilitation for Sh 25,000 for the period of 36 months in lump sum (Sh 900,000) at the point of notice to vacate the premises,” states the document in part.
It adds: “Upon fulfilment of the above, the tenants shall vacate on or before the lapse of the 90-day period.”
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja disclosed that, contrary to critics’ protests, “this is the most humane relocation ever in the history of Kenya, where tenants received rent money for three years (36 months) and allotment letters, which means they will benefit from the units once completed.”
“This means that we are giving our tenants free houses upon completion, houses which they have not paid for and are not buying because as a county we are not an entity that is in business.
“I said the money that has been paid over generations as rent should then be converted to have been a mortgage and the house then becomes yours,” Mr Sakaja said.
ODM acting party leader Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o had in a statement termed the evictions as “inhumane, and a clear breach of Article 43 (1) (b) of the constitution and the UN guidelines on involuntary resettlement.”
“The ODM party wishes to condemn the demolitions and appeal to the Nairobi County government not to be Pharisees in the execution of the law but to be humane in serving Kenyans,” Prof Nyong’o, who has faced numerous protests over evictions in his Kisumu county-led administration wrote.
Nairobi County Chief Officer, Housing and Urban Renewal Ms Lydia Mathia told Nation that whereas several home owners of Woodley Estate have been compensated for the phase one of the project, they have faced a challenged of double or even triple claims which has resulted into disputes.
She pointed out that the county government faced challenges where some tenants decided to rent out their houses to third parties, who are the ones who have benefited from the Sh 900,000 compensation since they are the ones who have been evicted from their homes.
“What we have done is to go to the physical houses, confirm those living there and those are the ones we compensated because ideally those are the people we are evicting.
“But we have had cases of double and even triple claims, which have even led to court cases that we won hence the greenlight to proceed with the project,” Ms Mathia said.
Governor Sakaja pointed out that upon compensation, and with the court greenlight, the county government had no obligation but to proceed with the evictions to ensure the project is implemented to have 1975 new units to accommodate more people.
“We did serious public participation, some of them led by myself with the residents of Woodley – the 43 of them affected in lot 1 of the project.
“Then we decided to be pragmatic as a country. We said we would give them rent money and we gave then Sh 900,000 each.”
Mr Sakaja added: “We gave them 90-day notice and did something unprecedented; giving them allotment letters to the new houses once completed. Meaning, we are giving our tenants free houses upon completion which they have not paid for and are not buying.”
He said already 10 acres out of the 100 acres of the Woodley Estate parcel has been secured for the project.
“The groundbreaking starts in December and the maximum period for the construction works is 36 months but it can be completed early.
“We want to see the old tenants come back, and then we can get new people to occupy the extra units,” said Mr Sakaja.
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