A notice issued by the Nairobi Deputy Regional Commissioner on Friday October 8th informed Mukuru kwa Njenga residents of demolitions slated to clear the way for expansion of the Nairobi Expressway. Those residing along Catherine Ndereba Road were asked to begin demolishing their structures over the weekend. Resistance, it was noted, would not be tolerated as Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and security officers would be deployed to ensure the demolition would proceed according to plan. As has become custom, the announcement was made on a Friday and the demolitions slated for the weekend to prevent people from going to court until Monday.
Anami Daudi Toure, a resident of Mukuru kwa Njenga for 20 of his 25 years, saw the Regional Commissioner make the announcement on social media. For Toure the announcement was devastating as he knew what it meant for the community center he had worked so hard to build and manage for the past 11 years. His youth association, Amusha (which means to wake up) had built a thriving youth resource center that was a hub of activity and support for the Mukuru kwa Njenga community. The center whose walls were painted with images of Che Guevara, Bob Marley, Malcolm X and a member who passed away hosted a community justice center, a civic and children’s library, a sanitation unit, a community hall, an ICT center and served as a coordinating space for a recycling project managed out of a nearby shipping container. Operational since 2010 the center ran a host of youth and women’s empowerment programs and offered a safe space for the residents of Mukuru kwa Njenga and local organizations to convene and organize.
The center was the center of Toure’s existence and within days he knew it would be reduced to rubble. On Saturday the 9th of October the members began removing computers, equipment, furniture, water tanks, carwash machines and sensitive documents for storing in members’ homes and partner organization spaces. The association's members worked overnight to ferry the goods to safe spaces dismayed at the fate of their treasured center. On Sunday the 10th of October at around midday the bulldozers reached the settlement. One began tearing down the Amusha Youth Organization Center at 2pm.
Toure was in a state of shock and still doesn't feel comfortable talking about the event. At the time he recalls feeling so emotional that he was shaking and he couldn't watch the destruction - only seeing it on video much later. Everything they had worked so hard to build over so many years was razed to the ground in a matter of minutes. It remains hard for him to believe the center is gone and he still says he hasn't the words to express how he feels about it. Maybe someday, he says and shakes his head. The Mukuru kwa Njenga community who had such a stake in the center were also in disbelief and despair, “They’ve taken Amusha down” they would write as they shared photos and videos of the demolition on community Whatsapp groups.
The October demolitions proceeded relatively peacefully as people reluctantly accepted that Catherine Ndereba needed to be expanded to link the expressway to the Industrial Area. However early November the Area Chief came to inform the community that the government wanted to undertake further demolitions, ostensibly for feeder roads. This development was news to the community and they mobilized and demanded an audience with the Area Chief and Deputy County Regional Commissioner to negotiate a way forward. The pair allegedly refused to engage the community in discussion and said they would use force to undertake the additional demolitions. To the community's dismay, the Area Chief was telling people to go back to their villages. For Toure who had lived in Mukuru kwa Njenga for 20 years the suggestion made little sense, much less to those who had lived there for over 30 years. Many of the settlement's women lamented the fact they have no claim to land in the village as family land is held by men and for those whose husbands have left them there is no village home to speak of.
The refusal of the Area Chief and Deputy County Regional Commissioner to negotiate infuriated the community. On the 3rd and 4th of November up to 3,000 residents gathered at the police station and blocked the roads. They were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and watercannons. A number of arrests were made – with community members allegedly charged with illegal assembly, robbery and other trumped up charges.
On the 5th of November the demolition for the so-called feeder roads commenced under massive police presence now backed by the GSU. Toure reports there were now four anti-riot trucks with water cannons, approximately 600 police, and a group of hired goons intimidating the community. One of the goons wore a police uniform and appeared to be guiding the bulldozers. Toure was singled out by the goons for being a human rights activist and was harassed and told to leave the area. If anyone was caught filming the demolition their phones were thrown under the anti-riot trucks. The media were conspicuously absent leading many to question who was behind the press blockade.
It was clear to all on site the demolitions were not limited to feeder roads. This was a land grab. The whole of Mukuru kwa Njenga was being demolished. People were caught unawares by the second wave of demolitions and scrambled to remove belongings before their homes were razed or before the police chased them away. Many did not succeed and were seen scouring the wreckage for anything salvageable - trying to get to their goods before opportunistic youths on the hunt for anything valuable took them first. The scene looked like a devastating earthquake with people's possessions strewn amongst an endless sea of rubble and scrap metal. One resident, Bernad Mogaka, was killed trying to salvage belongings from his partly demolished house, which collapsed on him.
On the 8th of November Toure's own house was demolished. He was in town when it happened and by the time he reached the settlement almost everything was gone. He only managed to save his mattress. It had become abundantly clear the bulldozers - now NMS, NYS and private hires - intended to demolish the whole settlement as quickly as possible. The police force - strangely drawn from outside of the area and perhaps even outside of Nairobi - were preventing people from converging on site and those who tried to organize resistance were summoned by the DCI. Many police were wearing civilian clothes further contributing to the intimidation felt by the community,
Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT) became aware of the scale and nature of the demolitions and visited the site on November 12th. They were appalled by the scale of the destruction and struck by the fact the demolition was clearly extending far beyond any road reserve. They describe hundreds of residents watching helplessly as the bulldozers turned their community to scrap - many of whom had been unable to remove their possessions before the bulldozers struck. They were also disturbed by the sight of bedridden people laid out in the sun in the middle of the chaos.
Troubled, they left the site to come up with a plan. That evening a rapid survey was undertaken using satellite images and mapping previously undertaken by the Muungano Alliance. According to the preliminary rapid survey 7,000 families had already been displaced and the demolitions were ongoing. The survey also revealed 14 schools (accommodating more than 1,666 pupils) and 17 health centers had been demolished. One of the schools, River of Life, was Toure's school from class four to standard eight.
The AMT team worked with a CSO network and Hakijami to prepare a petition seeking an injunction stopping the demolitions and the Muungano Alliance held discussions with Amnesty International who intended to file a class action suit on behalf of the affected persons. AMT also planned a meeting for November 16th with residents of the surrounding Mukuru settlements. At the meeting the community presented an update of happenings on site. They reported that the number of demolished homes had risen dramatically since the November 12th rapid survey - with new estimates suggesting 42,283 people had been evicted on an area of land shown in the satellite image below. The map was produced by AMT staff who worked late into the night to discretely plot the GPS coordinates of the demolished area. The map revealed the demolitions had cleared an area up to 250m wide. One resident remarked, "This is no road, perhaps it's a runway!"
The Mukuru residents reported that local chiefs were passing notices to residents to vacate their mabati structures because the land owners want it back. The residents reflected that a similar situation happened in Mukuru kwa Rueben where demolitions happened in the name of road construction but turned out to be in the service of a private landowner. While many Mukuru kwa Njenga families had scattered looking for other accommodation - a difficult prospect given the sky-rocketing rents in the surrounding slums since the eviction - hundreds of the displaced were forced to settle in makeshift tents on the demolition site explaining that they have nowhere to go - many having lost both their home and their business in the demolition.
One single mother with seven children - three of whom are mentally disabled - had erected a tent from plastic sheets and expressed a feeling of utter hopelessness as she has no friends or family who can accommodate her large family with its special needs, no resources to rebuild, and no possibility of leaving the children to look for work. Her flimsy excuse for a tent sits amongst open sewerage and offers little protection from the season's rains. Because all the local grocery stalls were demolished, the residents are forced to shop at nearby formal supermarkets whose prices are much higher leaving many hungry. The displaced report being repeatedly harassed to leave by goons in the evenings.
Another women, Rukia Godana had her home and business demolished in the first wave of evictions and then the home to which she relocated demolished in the second wave. She spent two nights sleeping in a tent and says she cannot imagine how people have survived in them for weeks on end. She said it was impossible to sleep in the tent, so worried was she that robbers or goons would come and attack her and her children. After borrowing money from friends and family she moved into a nearby highrise building but is unsure how she will continue to pay the high rent and utility bills without work. She hopes to be able to rebuild her business stall somewhere and eventually her home in Mukuru kwa Njenga where she had much more space than the small unit she and her children occupy now.
The Mukuru residents convened by AMT agreed to a number of measures to try to stop further demolition, address the rights of the affected persons, investigate the players and forces behind the evictions and ensure the land be returned to the residents. Among the measures were a petition, a social media campaign, and a peaceful demonstration. A petition was drafted by the Muungano Alliance setting out the facts on the ground and calling for an end to the demolitions; compensation for affected persons; returning of land to the residents; public participation before any works are done; enrolling of all affected school going children in schools; extension of psycho-social support among others. The petition would be delivered by peaceful demonstrators to the Ministry of Transport and be sent by email to NMS and later the office of the President. The protest was scheduled for Thursday 18th of November.
In the meantime AMT and youth from the Muungano Alliance's Know Your City TV set about sharing photos, videos and information on social media using various hashtags. At one point #StopForcedMukuruEvictions was trending at #6 on Twitter drawing critical attention to the plight of the Mukuru kwa Njenga community. Gradually media houses were compelled to cover the evictions, but most grossly understated the number of people affected and failed to convey the fact that the demolition extended far beyond the road reserve.
On the morning of the protest AMT leadership had just finished printing the petitions when they were called to meet with an adviser to the president, Mr. Kariuki. AMT had called Kariuki the previous day to inform him of the land grab. Kariuki explained that the President's office had no knowledge of the demolitions beyond Catherine Ndereba Rd and claimed there must be sabotage involved. Kariuki recommended the President be briefed and requested further information in the form of maps and data which the AMT leadership agreed to produce.
They did not tell Kariuki they were on their way to the protest.
Though there were far fewer protesters than planned - likely due to intimidation meted out by police in past demonstrations and a sense of hopelessness in the face of the government forces behind the demolitions - those who turned up were loud and drew a lot of attention. On Harambee Ave the protesters entered the road and with their vuvuzelas, whistles and megaphone they voiced their outrage at the demolitions. The protesters held signs reading, "Mukuru ni home"; "You call it a slum. We call it home"; "Stop Mukuru Demolitions"; "Respect our rights" among others. Once they reached Kenyatta Ave, the protesters blocked the road and then, at the Ministry of Transport and Housing, they blocked the gate - preventing cars from entering or exiting.
Police at the gate said they would permit two people to deliver the petition to the Secretary since the PS was not in the office. The protesters refused and insisted it be delivered to the PS. At this point two pickups full of police arrived and demanded to know where the protesters permit was. The protesters insisted it was their right to protest and also challenged the police that those who evicted the residents of Mukuru kwa Njenga had not come with permits. Frustrated, the police gave the demonstrators two minutes to leave peacefully. The protesters refused and were promptly teargassed. Four canisters were thrown and the demonstrators were forced to disperse, running to Uhuru Park for safety. Apparently the demonstrators were happy with the result repeating a common protester's refrain, "Tear gas is our right. We paid for it!"
Following the protest, AMT leadership were again called by Kariuki who informed them that General Badi of NMS wanted to see them. When they reached the General's office they met the MCA of Mukuru kw Njenga in the corridor and agreed on the numbers affected by the demolition. Upon entering the General's office they found him very pained. "This did not happen under my watch" he insisted. The General explained that NMS equipment was requested by another government agency. He said the people behind the demolitions must be very powerful and that AMT and others should go to court and sue them. Finally, he said that he would like to visit Mukuru kwa Njenga that evening, meet the residents, see for himself what had transpired, and offer basic support from NMS for the IDPs. AMT thanked the General and urged Kariuki to provide mabati and poles for the community to rebuild if his office was as sorry as they professed to be.
The AMT leadership were given a ride to Mukuru kwa Njenga by the MCA. They were charged with confirming the crowd would not be hostile to General Badi. The problem for AMT was that the MCA of Mukuru kwa Njenga is widely known to be a member of the land cartel responsible for selling plots and supporting the eviction. The AMT leadership knew that to be seen getting out of his car could put them at risk of stoning. Luckily the MCA gave an excuse that he likes to work alone and left them somewhere out of sight of the community. AMT walked around and determined the situation was safe and made the communication to Kariuki. General Badi thus arrived around 7pm to address the residents. In his communication he told the residents NMS was not behind the demolitions and that they would supply blankets and food to the IDPs. He told the residents they shouldn't loose their land and that they should be provided with mabati and poles to rebuild. The MCA attempted to speak but the community did not permit him to pronounce a single word and he had to hand back the mike.
On Friday 19th, the AMT leadership were again summoned to meet Kariuki. He wanted to know how the evicted persons could be identified. AMT noted that during the Mukuru Special Planning Area preparation process they mapped all structures in the settlement. These structures were mapped but not numbered. AMT proposed to have students working for them assign a unique number to each structure and to then work with a team of structure owners and tenants to identify who was living in each. A sheet for each structure would be prepared detailing the structure owner, caretaker and tenants, their IDs and telephone numbers. The preliminary list was prepared in only three hours and presented back to Kariuki who expressed his confidence in the "scientific method" deployed and instructed AMT to continue the work.
Again AMT were requested to prepare the ground for a visit by the General who would be accompanied by various directors from NMS, Nairobi Water, and the media. At this gathering Badi said he spoke to the President who committed to give materials to the affected community to rebuild, namely cement, t-bars, mabati, and poles. By this point the massive police presence had gone and the last water cannon truck could be seen departing. People were elated and began chanting "Badi Badi."
When the chants died down people wanted to know the next steps. AMT had sent the maps for printing and a boda brought them to the settlement. As the maps were on their way NMS requested the residents organize themselves into villages and each elect two community leaders to undertake the data collection. When the maps arrived they were given to the community leaders who were told to verify the structures and have the structure owners fill out the assigned forms with a list of their tenants. As the exercise rolled out more people involved themselves in this process which took three days.
As the data started rolling in, 20 youth from Mukuru were recruited to enter the data alongside NMS staff. AMT rented cyber cafes with backup generators for the youth to work from while others were set to work in the office. The data entry process took a further five days. Once the data was entered it was time for verification. Data and maps were printed and put up in four public places in Mukuru kwa Njenga so that the verification and dispute resolution process could begin. The process was managed by elected dispute resolution teams from each village with support from the NMS social team. Once the details of a specific structure were confirmed to be correct the structure owner and the tenants signed the form.
General Badi visited the settlement again on Wednesday the 24th to deal with the issues faced by the IDPs. He instructed Kariuki to bring seven police officers to guard the IDP settlement to protect them from the violence and threats of the cartel's goons. He instructed National Water to extend water and toilets to the people and an NMS engineer to find a solution to the lack of power. Lastly, he made a commitment that NMS would provide bread and milk to the IDPs every day. These arrangements were to support the IDPs until such time as rebuilding could take place. In that regard, AMT, WIRE, NMS, and the community set about dividing the settlement into blocks and began a consultative planning process to develop a land use and resettlement plan.
Then, on the 6th of December a group of 207 so-called land owners from Mukuru kwa Njenga sued 14 respondents including Nairobi City Council, NMS, General Badi, the Director of AMT, and the Kenya Red Cross Society claiming that their constitutional rights as land owners were being trampled upon by "all manner of strangers, thugs, and busy bodies". The petition notes that the so-named Interested Party, Orbit Chemical Industries Limited, has been "reduced to a spectator".
To understand the origins of the petition, the "very powerful" players Badi claims were behind the eviction, the role of Orbit Chemicals and the land cartel to which the Mukuru kwa Njenga MCA and others are alleged to belong we need to dig a little deeper into the history of the Mukuru kwa Njenga land.
To do so members of the Mukuru kwa Njenga community, including members of Toure's association, Amusha, members of the Mukuru Community Justice Center, members of Mukuru Vumilia and other residents came together to share their deep knowledge on the history and present situation in Mukuru kwa Njenga. In the section that follows this group will be referred to as the "community leaders".
The story begins in 1986 when Orbit Chemicals purchased a 97 acre plot of land at auction from the National Bank of Kenya for 10 million shillings - a throw away price by any standards. The first question the community leaders have is who owned the land auctioned by the Bank? The other question they have is how the land was purchased by Orbit Chemicals when there were no Kenyans its board as was required by law. They say the Moi Government, after initially degazetting the land and annulling Orbit's ownership, later reversed the decision in response to tireless underworld maneuvering by the company. In this way Orbit Chemicals came to hold the title for land already settled by squatters. Lastly, the community leaders seek to understand what purpose the land was sold for and whether the terms were fulfilled by Orbit Chemicals. All these factors call into question the legitimacy of Orbit Chemicals' ownership of the land.
In the ensuing years Orbit Chemicals was embroiled in a protracted dispute with government, suing them for compensation for lost revenue on the land upon which the government had placed caveats preventing industrial development. Orbit sued government and was awarded 6 million shillings, but this decision was later overturned by the Court of Appeal. In addition Orbit Chemicals opened several cases against the residents to try to remove the so-called squatters - who they deceptively claimed invaded the land after it was purchased. The High Court found in their favor and gave permission for Orbit Chemicals to apply to the High Court for eviction orders. Facing imminent eviction a certain segment of the population began protracted negotiations with Orbit Chemicals who finally decided to begin subdividing and selling the land.
In 2012 the community leaders claim Orbit Chemicals recruited the services of former MP George Oner as a surveyor cum consultant. They accuse Oner of being the master planner for a land cartel which demarcated the land into over 1300 plots and began selling them for 600,000 shillings a piece. With around 800,000,000 shillings on the table one can imagine the powerful interests at play and how high the stakes are.The community leaders have drawn up a chart named the "Structure of Impunity in Mukuru kwa Njenga" which depicts the land cartel terrorizing the settlement's residents and, they say, stealing their land. The chart shows Mr. Sachen Chandaria (not to be confused with noted businessman and philanthropist Manu Chandaria) - Director of Orbit Chemicals at the apex presiding over George Oner - the surveyor and master planner - whose groundmen, Mr. Shem Oluoch and Mr. John Kyalo (the Area MCA) show buyers their plots after completion of payment. A few layers down in the chart Mr. Matheka Musyoka mobilizes and hires goons who strike mostly at night and on weekends to intimidate residents to leave and demolish their structures to clear plots for construction by the new buyers. Initially, the buyers were not given titles or allotment letters, just bank slips.
In January 2015 President Uhuru Kenyatta issued a Presidential directive that the slum residents in Mukuru kwa Njenga should have their ownership of the land regularized and that alternative land should be allocated to the commercial private developer. At this time the community leaders claim Orbit Chemicals was compensated with land in Athi River which, if true, starkly calls into question Orbit Chemical's ongoing stake to the land in Mukuru kwa Njenga. Community leaders claim the Area MP is on record saying Orbit Chemicals was compensated with a 6 billion shilling piece of land in Athi River and the Senator for Nairobi City referred to the said compensation on the floor of the house. The community claim the Ministry of Lands sent surveyors to Mukuru kwa Njenga in 2015-2016 but that the report was "hidden somewhere". They accuse the Chair of the National Lands Commission for failing the squatter community - many of whom have resided in the settlement for over 30 years. In 2019-2020 County went ahead and approved the Oner subdivisions and the Lands Office began issuing allotment letters and titles. The community leaders are sure this was a "wet my beak" arrangement wherein certain officials in the County and the Lands Office were given cash or land to facilitate the process. This development emboldened the cartel and a host of powerful land owners from outside the community.
The community leaders claim that in the demarcation of the land, Orbit Chemicals sat with authorities including the Principle Secretary of Internal Security, the Permanent Secretary of Lands, the Cabinet Secretary of Lands, and the Regional Commissioner, Area MP, the Area MCA and various tycoons - all of whom the community claim have an interest on the land and are likely to be some of the powerful forces to which General Badi alluded and the reason Orbit Chemicals deemed it viable to spend an estimated (by the community leaders and their contacts) 12 million shillings on the demolition. It is alleged there is a conflict brewing between NMS and the national government given the heavy alignment of these beneficiaries to the latter.
According to the community leaders, Mr. Sachen Chandaria finances the land cartel comprising George Oner, local administrators, security organs, local leaders and hired goons who have spearheaded the whole demolition in an effort for Orbit Chemicals to reap significant financial benefit from the land. When the demolitions began the community felt betrayed by both the Area MP and the Deputy County Commissioner - both of whom they accuse of working with the land cartel. The community contends both knew the Catherine Ndereba road expansion story was a cover for a plan to demolish the whole settlement. Despite supposedly representing the community, they failed to consult or give them advance warning. The Area Chief - Christine Marete, moreover, was moving with a man identified as "Killer Cop" to coerce people across the settlement to take 2000 shillings to leave the area. This money is suspected to have originated with Orbit Chemicals as part of their investment in clearing the settlement. Some community leaders claim to have seen George Oner's vehicle personally deliver this cash to the Area Chief one evening.
In an article published by the Guardian on the 8th of December, the Orbit Chemicals Director claims he was caught off guard by the demolition. “We didn’t know. We have no intention to evict and we’ve never had intention to evict. We have been fighting this for 30-plus years,” says Chandaria. “If I really had the power to do this, why would I have been fighting for 30 years? ... We are manufacturers, I wouldn’t know who to call to do this. It’s a complete nightmare. I sit here every day wondering how to deal with this.” The community leaders believe these statements are pure public relations and belie the fact the company has been directing and financing the operations of the land cartel since 2012 and trying to evict the residents since they first claimed ownership of the land in 1986.
Way forward
Muungano data suggests tenants make up 96% of Mukuru's population and it is their interests the community leaders and partners are trying to protect. For its part, Amusha, with support from Muungano, is providing food packages to IDPs, raising awareness through many media channels, and planning to erect a tent on the demolition site for community members to come for legal services, psycho-social support and encouragement and support to rebuild. Ultimately Amusha seeks to rebuild their center bigger and better in an upgraded Mukuru kwa Njenga with all those who were displaced by the evictions. AMT and its legal partners are working to contest Orbit Chemicals' ownership of the Mukuru kwa Njenga land, seek compensation for those forcefully evicted, and support the community to rebuild as part of the Mukuru SPA. The community leaders are continuing to gather evidence of corruption and intimidation in the hope they can put an end to the crippling impunity that has allowed a land cartel to run rampant in their community for approximately 20 years. They seek recognition that they, the so-called squatters, are the rightful owners of the land and to set their settlement on a path to decent housing and services. Lastly, the Muungano Alliance seeks to convene a City dialogue early in the New Year on the issue of resettlement and forced eviction to ensure what happened in Mukuru kwa Njenga is not repeated in any other settlement.