Slum dwellers in Mombasa resist demolition

By Philip Mwakio

The residents of Dunga Nusu village in Chaani, Changamwe constituency on the edge of Port Reitz Creek in Mombasa repulsed a demolition squad sent to bring down their structures in an early morning exercise that left two people with serious injuries.

One of the injured was hit with a gun while the other had a tear gas canister lobbed into his back as he escaped.

This was after a private developer stormed the village at 3am with armed Police and youths ready to demolish the houses belonging to over 3,000 families, put up on a parcel of land measuring 3.8 hectares.

A Young girl keeps vigil at their properties removed from their ancestral home at Migadini- Dunga Nusu village, Changamwe. (Photo:Maarufu Mohamed/Standard)

Some tenants in the area were seen carting away their belongings away as tension remained high.

The locals armed with crude weapons overpowered the demolition squad forcing them to retreat. Several tear gas canisters left in the area were clear evidence of an early morning engagement.

The residents had threatened to burn an electricity power transformer near the village.

A resident, Mr Suleiman Adan claimed that they had gone to court last year and obtained orders barring anyone from evicting them until the case is finalised.

"We are disturbed by actions of some government agents who led the demolition ground when they attempted to flatten our village. There is a case still pending at the High Court in Mombasa,’’ he said.

When The Standard visited the area, residents were keeping vigil vowing never to allow their village to be destroyed.

The plot in question is MN/VI/1212.

"I have been squatting on this government land since I was a young boy and we have resisted several attempts to take it away," a resident Robert Chimera, 40, said.