Sakaja to resettle 8,000 families in Kariobangi
By Alvin.Mwangi, January 18, 2024Nairobi residents whose houses were demolished from the disputed Kariobangi sewer land can finally breathe a sigh of relief after Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja announced plans to resettle them.
A meeting between Sakaja and his cabinet ministers resolved that the over 8,000 families will be resettled in the same land.
“The county executive committee approved the resettlement of residents evicted in 2020 from a disputed piece of land in Kariobangi North. The piece of land, initially part of the Nairobi County Sewerage expansion had been excised and allotments issued through the defunct Nairobi City Council,” reads a dispatch from the meeting.
On May 4, 2020, at about 5.30am, 8,000 people were evicted from Kariobangi North Sewerage settlement despite a dusk-to-dawn COVID-19 curfew.
The government insisted that the residents were on public land that had been illegally acquired and was on a mission to reclaim it to create room for the expansion of the Kariobangi Waste Sewage Treatment plant.
Affected residents
The government said the plant would help offload the burden from the Dandora-Ruai Water Sewerage Treatment plant.
The evictions affected residents at the nearby Korogocho slums which overlook the sewerage settlement as excavators brought down homes, churches, shops and schools.
The demolition went on even after the court issued an order on May 3, 2020, stopping the evictions following a certificate of urgency filed by lawyer John Khaminwa.
The eviction was widely condemned but authorities seemed unmoved by the plight of the evictees.
Regular police, Administration Police and the General Service Unit (GSU) stood guard as bulldozers brought down homes in the informal settlement.