Residents moan rising insecurity

Residents of Nyayo Estate have complained about rising cases of insecurity.

According to their welfare chairman Jabez Ouma, insecurity has been aggravated by lack of screening since strangers enter and leave the estate without being subjected to security checks by guards.

“The other biggest problem is the defiance by the developer (National Social Security Fund) to continue constructing more units in places that were once reserved for recreational activities,” said Ouma.

Adds Ouma: “Most of the residents are young at heart who, at the end of the day or during weekends, want to release some energy through activities like jogging, playing volleyball etc. But since there are no grounds for such activities, many thus resort to drinking, among other vices.”

He said some units have been turned into guesthouses yet they are meant for residential purposes.

Many have taken to social media to vent their frustrations.

A Facebook post by blogger and resident Robert Alai Onyango claims: “House No 304/30, apparently a furnished apartment, is being let to every Tom, Dick, Martha and Harry. This is defiling the court and risking lives of our kids. You remember that these “furnished apartments” are what someone turned into a gay brothel where they were shooting gay porn.”

 WRONG REASONS

The estate has been in the news for a long time for the wrong reasons. Some of the concerns raised by estate residents include rising incidents of murder, commercialising apartments and failure by NSSF to build social amenities promised during the initial project construction.

Last year on December 16, Kunguru Martin Opiyo was charged with killing his girlfriend Charity Mukami Wachira. Earlier in June, a police officer shot himself dead at Embakasi Nyayo Estate.

In June last year again, a school bus crushed to death a pupil in the estate in Court 297 after just dropping him home from school.

The latest incident is where Kenyan rapper Jackson Makini alias CMB Prezzo was on Saturday arrested and held at Embakasi Police Station for allegedly causing disturbance in the estate.

The estate, with an estimated population of more than 20,000 people with 4,774 housing units, is home to many foreigners, most of them from South Sudan and Nigeria. Incidentally, some of the foreigners have been linked to criminal activities.

In October 2015, four Nigerians were charged after they were allegedly arrested with fake currency in the estate. Adun Nosakhare, Apollo Eronmonse, Enobakhare Eddyson and Akpukpula Destiny were accused of committing the offence on October 23.