86-year-old woman left in the cold after government flattens house

Esther Wanjiku Waweru outside her house at Embulbul in Ngong, Kajiado County. [photo: Wilberforce Okwiri/Standard]

The fire on a makeshift jiko at Esther Wanjiku’s homestead was out but the 86-year-old woman was till perched on a wooden seat next to it. Her face dry, her eyes sore red.

All night, Wanjiku was in the freezing Ngong temperatures, nine degrees, after a decision by the Kajiado County Government that left her homeless.

Where once stood her two-bedroom house, now is just a heap of debris of stone blocks and a pile of wood she salvaged.

Wanjiku, who was once a landlord, is now depending on her struggling tenant for some basic needs like food as her three children are jobless and she is the one taking care of her grandchildren.

“Mimi usiku ikifika, nawasha tu moto nakaa hapa. Sasa nitaenda wapi. (When night falls, I just light up the fire and stay awake. I have nowhere else to go),” says Wanjiku.

Her face is suddenly clouded with a mixture of anger and pain as she narrates her ordeal, fighting off tears.

For 70 years, Wanjiku says she has been a resident of Plot B81 at Embulbul, Kajiado North sub-county.

However, her woes started in June, this year, when the county government made a decision to clear some houses, allegedly on road reserve, to pave way for a trench that was to direct stagnant water out of the residential area.

A notice issued by Kajiado Sub-County Administrator Solomon Kereku on June 19, 2018, gave her 24 hours to vacate.

“You are hereby given 24 hours to remove your structures, failure to which the county government will demolish without any further notice,” read the notice.

She unsuccessfully pleaded her case.

The notice stunned Wanjiku as she has been paying the necessary fees to the local authority for her 0.09884 acres even before the county government was in place.

The latest receipt seen by The Standard is dated April 6, 2017, where she paid Sh1,500 for the annual land rates.

Last year, Wanjiku was at the lands county office where a search was done during a survey and was issued with a confirmation that her land details were proper.

She was even issued with a document by the county, which had then released the first batch of new generation allotment letters signed by County Public Lands Registrar Philip Ntaato Murkuku on May 20, 2017.

“This is to confirm allotment of the above referred plot to you by the County Government of Kajiado,” read the letter.

When The Standard sought an explanation from Kereku, the signatory of the 24-hour notice, he said he is not authorised to speak on the issue and only the county lands minister could do so.

Numerous calls and text messages to the Lands County Executive member Hamilton Parseina went unanswered.