GENERAL BADI TO KICK THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE OUT OF NAIROBI

Kenyans who have encroached on public and private land in nine constituencies within Nairobi County now risk being evicted if the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) effect a directive by the regional security committee to reclaim the pieces of land.

NMS Director General Mohamed Badi, who appeared before the Senate Devolution Committee on Wednesday to answer queries on alleged land grabbing in Pumwani and Eastleigh, dismissed reports that his officers were involved in the eviction and claimed that it was conducted by the police; a claim that Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai had denied.

This comes a month after the committee launched a probe into alleged illegal evictions of Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company staff from the county government housing units in Pumwani to pave way for a private developer.

“It is not NMS that does the actual eviction as I said it is a multi-agency team…if it is that area then that DC takes charge of that operation, it is not NMS. NMS is either tasked to provide transport, to ensure there is traffic flow,” said Badi.

The Director General was at pains to explain how he mobilized the police to demolish structures and evict employees of an entity that he oversees just because there was a court order issued.

“How do you mobilise the police to come and evict your staff from a property that was put up by the same entity that you run?” Chairman, Senate Devolution Committee, Moses Kajwang posed.

Badi responded: “We would have appealed if that was brought to my attention because this was brought through a court order and of course any court order can be appealed.”

The NMS boss went forth to state that cartels had become more vicious in the county and that there were pending evictions that were approved by the Nairobi regional security committee which oversees demolitions in the city.

Badi similarly underscored the need for security agencies to deal with multiple land allocations, which empowers land grabbers who through court orders hinder efforts to correct the mess.

“I have seen cases where there have been five cases allocation to one piece of land, we usually refer them to go to court and we also present the same to CID for investigations,” explained the DG.

The evictions will affect nine constituencies including Lang’ata, Embakasi, Mathare, Makadara, Kibra, Kamukunji, Westlands, Kasarani and Starehe.

They target owners of illegal garages, temporary structures, permanent structures, and illegal containers. The regional security committee has already effected evictions in some of those areas.

NMS has also been tasked by the security committee to remove boda boda operators, street families, parking boys, beggars, hawkers and gamblers operating from the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD).

Courtesy