Thousands of residents of Obama estate in Nairobi’s Eastlands are living in fear of eviction after they were issued with notices to vacate the land they have built their houses by the original owner of the land yesterday morning.

This is after the court ruled that the 18.6 acres of land that houses over 3,500 households was sold to the current dwellers illegally and without the knowledge of the property’s owners.

The landlords of the hundreds of rental apartments, schools, churches and personal homes have a maximum of two weeks to either enter an agreement of payment for the plots they occupy with Broadwell Limited, the rightful land owners or vacate the premises.

The deadline for these two options is January 31, failure to which Broadwell Limited will have to ensure the squatters on its land are forced out.

The unsuspecting landlords at Obama were sold plots in the 18.6 acre land, LR No 18282 by Daylight Self-help Group on diverse dates.

Documents show that despite numerous attempts by Broadwell Limited to stop the invasion of the land by groups of people did not bear fruits.

“We tried to stop the invasion severally but were always threatened with violence and that is why we went to the court, ” Nicholas Mage, the Managing Director, Breadwell Limited, said.

The company acquired the land in 1992 from the then City Council of Nairobi and was granted a 99 year lease commencing April 1, 1992. However, over the years, the people who invaded the property registered the aforementioned self-help group to “manage” the land.

Though laughable the move be, the Group subdivided the land and eventually began selling the plots to unsuspecting buyers and by 2012, a crop of new land owners began constructing their homes in the area.

By 2016, plenty of six-storey buildings were mushrooming in the disputed land. It is this sad reality of private investment on its land that sent Broadwell to Milimani Law Courts to defend its property.