Hundreds face eviction after a court ruling

A court has ended a 20-year land ownership dispute between some 400 people and a businessman in Nyahururu town.

Resident magistrate Judith Wanjala ruled that the five-acre prime parcel of land at Equator Estate belongs to Gitonga Githinji

The decision by the court sparked a protest by the residents who took to the street to protest against the ruling.

They argued that they had all the documents to support their case, saying they have been occupying the land for the past two decades.

Their spokesman Edward Njuguna regretted that they have put up houses worth millions of shillings and they were not ready to demolish them.

“This is the only place that our children call home. It would be unfair to demolish an entire estate just because of the interest of one person,” he observed.

Jane Nyambura regretted that demolishing the houses would subject their children to trauma.

“All they know is that these are their homes. What would we be subjecting them to by demolishing these houses? The government must come in and assist save the situation,” she said.

She regretted that they had been given three days for them to vacate failure to which the government would forcefully evict them.