Woodley Residents Welfare Society and four others have moved to court seeking orders barring the County Government of Nairobi from demolishing their houses.
The association, Wanja Kimani, Peter Ngatia, John Mugwe and Samson Mugacha Mwangi want the court to issue a temporary order of injunction restraining the respondents, their servants and agents from interfering with their possession of the said land.
Through lawyer Danstan Omari told the court that the applicants have been tenants/residents of Woodley area for more that 50 years.
Woodley Estate was previously occupied by top government officials and public servants some of whom, their families still reside there.
The court heard that the City Council(now the County Government of Nairobi) resolved to sell houses at Woodley to willing tenants and residents.
However, corruption marred the process where outsiders (Non-residents) were allowed to buy the houses in total disregard of the existing tenants.
“Consequently, the sale was stopped when Woodley residents went to court after continually being harassed by people who came in with letters/contracts as proof of purchase,” Omari said.
According to an affidavit by Samson Mugacha Mwangi the sale of city council houses to tenants is a recognized process as the same was smoothly implemented in Madaraka and Dagoretti areas.
“Woodley residents welcomed the idea of buying the houses from the then City council. Some of the tenants of Woodley have already had an opportunity to buy the housing units while others are still waiting for the same chance,” Mwangi states.
NMS proposal
According to Mwangi, the then Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) wrote a letter dated 21/6/2021, signed by Joseph Biomdo Director legal services (NMS), to the Welfare Society indicating that NMS wanted to start projects in Woodley, beginning with vacant sites before embarking on areas under occupation.
“In the said project, tenants were to be given first priority. Records will show that there were minutes by NMS which provided how public participation was to be done before the beginning of the project,” Mwangi added.
The residents allege that without any public participation, the county intents to suddenly chase the families of the petitioners/applicants from Woodley area and put up the Affordable Housing Project, otherwise known as Urban Renewal.
The court heard that the parties were willing to settle the tussle amicably but it seems Nairobi County is no longer willing to go the said route.
Instead the County intents to permanently, hurriedly and forcefully evict the residents from the said parcel of land in favor of a public project which has since been referred to with various names including Affordable housing/Urban Renewal.
Omari submitted that the County has maliciously expressed its intentions to permanently deprive the petitioners/Applicants the land/houses as it has already entered into a contract dated 12th January 2024 with Africareit Limited which has been contracted by the County to design, finance and build the intended project.
He added that his clients are fearful that the County government, its agents or servants may succeed with their illegal actions due to their influence as the entire transaction is shrouded in mystery in illegal dealing with public property likely to be scandalous and this will deny families of the Petitioners a right to be heard.
“The biggest concern is that the intended project, whose groundbreaking is set to begin within the next one month is set to evict the residents of Woodley Estate, an action which will bring down over 3000 families and their investments in the area.”
