Houses built on tarmac road in Naivasha demolished

A building that had encroached on a road reserve in County Council and Site Estate in Naivasha, is demolished yesterday after the expiry of an eight month notice. [Antony Gitonga, Standard]

County bulldozers yesterday descended on a block of rental houses that were constructed on a section of a tarmac road in Naivasha town.

This is after the picture of the house on the road trended on social media for two days.

Residents of Kabati, County Council and Site estates scampered for safety as the roaring machines mowed down other structures on road reserves.

The demolition followed expiry of an eight-month notice to building owners pull them down.

For a couple of months, rehabilitation of roads in the three estates under the World Bank (WB) programme had stalled due to the structures.

Three estates

According to Viwandani MCA Eric Gichuki, the owners had been warned to demolish the structures but they had defied this. He said encroachment of road reserves had adversely affected the WB project, which was meant to upgrade the status of the three estates.

“The owners had been served with an eight-month notice but they ignored; we had no choice but to bring the structures down,” he said.

He defended the quality of the ongoing works noting that the rains had affected the project, adding that the county was keenly monitoring the project.

This came as residents raised the alert on the quality of work been undertaken under the rehabilitation project. According to Mariku Gikonyo, the chairman Viwandani Residents Association, the quality of the work was worrying.

“We support the move to bring down all structures that have encroached on road reserves but the contractor should address the quality of the works,” he said.

He said that already, sections of the newly rehabilitated roads in the three estates were full of potholes due to the poor works.

Chairman Naivasha Professionals Association Eskimos Kobia added that the situation has been worsened by the ongoing rains. He said that nearly all the drainage systems had been flooded while others had been blocked yet the contractor had not completed the works.

“The works that are funded by the World Bank are not yet complete yet sections of the road are falling apart and this is worrying,” he said.