4,000! Or are they bluffing?

News & Politics
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[SIZE=7]Over 4,000 buildings to go in operation to secure Nairobi River[/SIZE]
Aug. 07, 2018, 6:00 am
By JULIUS OTIENO and GILBERT KOECH
https://www.the-star.co.ke/sites/default/files/styles/new_full_content/public/articles/2018/08/07/1798473.jpg?itok=tfA_pQO6A drum lies at a demolished site in Kileleshwa, Nairobi on Monday 6, 2018. /HEPHZIBAR BUKASU

About 4,000 buildings are earmarked for demolition in an operation to clear illegal structures from river banks in Nairobi.
The operation expected to take two months kicked off yesterday in Kileleshwa.
A Java coffee house within the Shell petrol station and perimeter walls of several residential apartments in the upmarket estate were pulled down.
Some of the apartments were discharging effluent into the river.
Several kiosks, billboards and a swimming pool were also cleared.
See: [VIDEO] Java Kileleshwa hit as NEMA demolishes structures on riparian land
The operation is led by the Nairobi Regeneration team appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta last December to clean and reclaim Nairobi River among other things.
The scenic river’s path has been invaded by dumping and unscrupulous developers.
In May, the team identified over 600 pollution points along the stream and acknowledged the urgency of the clean-up.
Nairobi Central Business District chief Julius Wanjau, who is in charge of the operation, said the owners of the buildings had been issued with three months and extra seven days notices to vacate.
The notices have expired.
“We are going to continue with demolitions until we reach the National Museum. Then we will move to Gikomba, Ruai and Nairobi West,” Wanjau said.
Wanjau acknowledged that bribery was the major challenge he and his officers face in executing the demolition order.
“I am being called by strange numbers telling me to stop this exercise so that we can talk. I am receiving money on Mpesa from new numbers and I’m forced to send back,” he said.
Read: Inconsistent laws to blame for encroachment of riparian land
The demolitions will be a litmus test to both the national and county governments that have for decades been accused of looking aside to allow developments on riparian reserves, especially those owned by wealthy politicians and government officials.
The state and City Hall have also been accused of abetting land grabbing and encroachment on public land and road reserves.
As a consequence of the dereliction of duty, several buildings have collapses in various parts of the city with fatalities recorded.
According to the National buildings inspectorate and the multi-sectoral committee on unsafe structures, more than 3000 building have been marked as unsafe for occupation, but only a handful have been demolished.
Wanjau said that the operation has been okayed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and a budget provided.

A team of 80 armed police officers and 100 city county inspectorate officers have been attached to the demolition team to provide security.
The regeneration exercise received Sh800 million in 2018-19 financial year.
In June, National Environmental Management Authority director general Geoffrey Wahungu promised to publish names of influential people who have encroached on river banks. He had been put to task by a parliamentary committee over the authority’s failure to pull down structures erected next to waterways.
“Nema and the Water Resources Management Authority suffer because of accusations. I request the committee to help the National Building Inspectorate to implement the report,” he said.
Several buildings stand on wetlands while some sit right on the river bed contrary to environmental laws that set a distance of 30 metres between riparian land and human activities.
However, according to the Agriculture Act, the distance should be a minimum of two metres and a maximum of 30 metres.
According to Nema Communications officer Evan Nyabuto, both the Ukay and Westgate shopping malls in Westlands lie on wetland and have been mapped and marked for demolition.
More: Swazuri team unveils plan to evict developers from riparian lands
However, the owners have obtained court orders stopping the authorities from pulling them down.
Other structures include godowns opposite the Kamukunji police station and five flats.
According to sources within Nema, the mapping and marking of illegal structures is still going on to reclaim Nairobi.
In June, the parliamentary committee on environment and natural resources was alarmed by the extent of encroachment when it toured waterways.
It identified Limuru Road, Lang’ata Road, Arboretum Road, Spring Valley, Globe Cinema Round-About, Riverside Drive, Westlands, Parklands, Fuata Nyayo estate in South B, Village market, Gem Suites in Riverside and Alina Villas in Spring Valley as among the areas with developments sitting on river banks.
Committee chairperson Kareke Mbiuki said yesterday that owners of the structures built on the river banks have been summoned to appear before the committee next Monday.
Former Bobasi MP Stephen Manoti’s Sh1 billion five-story building at the Mbagathi-Way – Langata Road junction opposite T-Mall that was constructed despite opposition by environmentalists and city MCAs has now been occupied.
Conflict between Nema and Water Resources Authority is said to have given way to the block that is alleged to be sitting on the Ngong River bed. Nema is said to have outlawed the building only for WRA to approve it.
In April 2015, the building was blamed for the deadly flooding in South C and Nairobi West.
About 2,000 developed plots are said to be on wetlands.
Also see: MPs task Nema to name all developers on riparian land
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Fimbo chapaaaaa.

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hawa ndio wanaleta floods. walete hata jeshi kazi ya kubomoa ifanywe haraka before Cliff Ombeta runs to court.

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nyumba mob kando ya river ni za wahindi…watbomoa kweli ama wanaogopaheshimu wahindi?

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Time will tell.

6

Kutakuwa na riots kwa slums. Especially that area around MAB

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True, kuna flats zinaitwa Viraj on Githunguri road off hiyo round about ya kasuku centre, they have been constructed kwa mto kabisa, in-between other people’s property boundary and the river. Amazing thing is across the river ni state house
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Walianza na roho wanamalizia na mwili kwa nini!? Walipeana notice after notice kuisha wakaanza kubomoa, why stop now!? Ama ni attention ya wahusika ndio walikuwa wakitaka? Hizi discussion ndio utapata eventually operation yote imehalt.

9

Mimi kabla hawajaangusha hiyo building ya Manoti na hiyo ingine next pale T-Mall Langata Road sitaamini kitu.

Hizi kelele tumeskia kutoka 2010.

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There are huge tracks of land owned by absentee landlords and others whose 99year leases lapsed. We need to take an honourable action, if one has 30 000 acres, government should make it mandatory, take back half of it, then i.e half to be retained by government for future development plans, set about 5000 acres to create villages, establish adequate infrastructure, resettle people. The rest the land owner can retain.

This way we can begin to manage encroachment into forest, waterways and reduce slum expansions. Everyone deserves a decent home.

The problem will not end unless we take corrective action of land ownership and distribution.

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You cannot own riparian land.

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Kwa nini though?

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Sir, with all due respect, yours is just a silly suggestion. For one, Kenya is a capitalist country where the respect of title is guaranteed. How do you propose that gavament takes anybody’s land? By force?

Secondly, AS I HAVE SAID A MILLION AND ONE TIMES, THE PROBLEM WE FACE IN KENYA IS RATE OF POPULATION GROWTH. You can take Uhuru’s 30,000 acres in Juja and distribute it to the peasants of Mukuru BUT IF THEY CONTINUE TO BREED LIKE RATS you willl have to find some other land to take them to 10 years down the line. Is that sustainable?

I suspect that yours is one of the usual populist solutions/knee jerk reactions that we like jumping to. Road accidents? Dual the roads (as if there are no accidents on Thika Rd). Schools burning? Ban boarding schools (as if Kenya is the only country in the world with boarders). Corruption? Uhuru is not fighting corruption (as if that is the role of the pesident).

Let’s be thinking deeper sir.

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Kubomolea watu hapo Gikosh all the way to Korogocho, Dandora, Mathare, Tassia, Mukuru zote, Sinai, Kiambiu and Kayole won’t be an easy thing. There are so many slum settlements next to the river that I am not sure if these guys will succeed.

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He has beef with Kenyatta family for owning half the country in Taveta (According to Ngatha ya Gicugu).
Personally am happy with what the GOK is doing, including those on road reserves. I was in a mat and the driver was lamenting how an investor had just completed a highrise and kenha had earmarked it for demolition. I told him lament not sir, wacha investor ajue hajui.

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It can be done if the gavament does it NOW - five years to the next elections - and it ignores the noise made by NGOs.

I always laugh hysterically when I hear demons like Amnesty and sijui HRW condemn the gavament for demolishing slums (juzi juzi tu walikuwa wanasema eti barabara isijengwe Kibra, ta imajini, on gavament land, eti mpaka watu wawe compensated!). Try putting up an unregistered shoe polish kiosk in London ama New York uone…

It is as if these Western shit-heads think we should live like monkeys for ever…

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[COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]Kenya’s problem is not population growth, it is poverty.

No man/woman has ever emerged from the womb carrying a piece of paper called a Title Deed.
The land shall be left where it is and others shall occupy it 1 + million years after we are gone, just the same way others occupied it 1000s of years before these generation.

The laws pertaining to ownership of property are made by man and are not divine laws. If the law fails most of the people in these generation, then the law must undergo correction and changes. A person with 50 000 acres will not be any poorer just because 15 000 acres is set aside to create habitable villages.

[COLOR=rgb(0, 168, 133)]He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jim Elliot

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ni the same owners wa Viraj International School pale Katani?

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Hawatabomoa knowing how Kenyans are corrupt. ni pesa wanataka kula sasa, its like kukulia hiyo river. actually if you are a developer, do not ever attempt kujenga karibu na mto, pesa itakuwa yao si yako.

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Hata Thanos alianza hivi na soon akamaliza half of world popuplation