Vandals target Affordable Housing Project in Kiambu as violence grips county

As anti-Finance bill 2024, protesters engulfed the country in chaos and bloodshed leaving at least eight people dead and property worth millions destroyed, the government’s affordable housing project was not spared.

In Thika town, Kiambu county, construction of 975 units of affordable houses that include two-bedroom, three-bedrooms and studio apartments has been stalled after protesters vandalized the site making away with millions worth of construction equipment.

According to Miles Mwangi, the engineer in charge of the project, millions worth of items such as cement, steel among other items stocked at the site were stolen by goons who invaded the premises on Tuesday evening.

The concrete batching plant was seriously vandalized and its key components stolen by the goons resulting in stoppage of mixing cement, sand and gravel and consequently stalling operations at the site.

Mwangi told journalists that the project will remain stalled for a month or so as they race against time to re-equip the stalled machinery for continued construction works.

“We lost the computers that control the batching plant and for us to resume operations, we will need to re-equip this plant, an exercise that will take about a month as some of the components must be imported,” said Mwangi.

As if the burglary was not enough, the crooks further brought down the perimeter wall surrounding the site leaving it bear for invasion by everyone.

“This is a big site where we stock cement in thousands and so, we lost a lot yesterday,” added Mwangi.

By the time of going to press yesterday, armed police officers had been deployed at the site to restore normalcy and thwart any other attempt of further vandalism.

Affordable housing initiative which is dubbed the cornerstone in the pursuit of securing both economic and social rights for Kenyans is being undertaken to provide reasonably priced dwellings.

Elsewhere, Naivas Supermarket in Thika town is also counting huge losses after criminals invaded the shop and stole goods worth hundreds of thousands.

The criminals pelted stones on the building hosting the shop leaving the owners counting huge losses.

Yesterday, journalists found workers fixing destroyed windows using block boards while police officers and other security guards had been heavily deployed to beef up security.

Although the management declined to speak to journalists, traders within Thika town led by Samson Njau condemned the attack and called on the government to soften its hard stance and agree to have a dialogue with the protesters for normalcy to resume.

“These protests are a threat to our economy and it’s time to fix the situation. The government should listen to these protesters and if possible, heed to their grievances,” said Njau.

Separately, Nyeri residents stormed and looted Chieni supermarket linked to area MP Njoroge Wainaina after differing with him over his stance on the bill.