Kibera Residents woke up to an unexpected demolition this morning, just days after they had been promised that enumeration will be done and persons affected identified for a possible relocation or compensation before any demolition could be done.
The government had retreated from an earlier stand that they would not compensate people living on government land after a meeting organised by the Human Rights body and attended by KURA (Kenya Urban Roads Authority), which had scrapped the scheduled 10th July demolition and resolved that enumeration program will be carried out first.
“This is a betrayal from the government,” says Ben Ooko from Amani Kibera, whose Organisation offices was part of the demolished structures.
‘They came here on Tuesday and took our names. and told us this Monday we’ll go to the office and get some money to help us move. we were getting ready to go to the office to pick what we signed for but before that could happen, we woke up to this” says one Priscilla Ochieng, who also narrated to us that her house was not earlier marked but she was surprised when a group of people believed to have been guiding the bulldozer asked her for money before they could spare her house.
What now remains for the affected residents is just to count the losses, and work on rebuilding themselves again since the hopes of ever being compensated already went with today’s demolition.