2,000 families evicted from church land in Eldoret

By PETER OCHIENG

More than 2,000 families were at the weekend evicted by police from a controversial land in Eldoret.

The police, who were executing a court order, started demolishing houses on Saturday at 6am.

The controversial land is alleged to have been sold to a local church by a developer in March 2010.

The residents said they were woken up by loud bangs as bulldozers pulled down their dwellings.

People fleeing

 “I was sleeping when the police arrived. My children too were still in bed, only to be informed by a neighbour tha there were bulldozers destroying houses. When I came out, I saw people running in different directions with their household items,” said Joyce Akiru, who claimed to have been born in the area.

She said her parent secured the place in the 1960s and had been living in the area since then.

 Everline Lumuya, a mother of six, said police acted with malice since they were not served with an eviction notice.

She said her children escape death by a whisker as bulldozers brought down their house.

 The families got a reprieve when Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago intervened and ordered the police to stop demolishing houses.

Mandago said he was not informed of the evictions and instructed Eldoret West police chief David Muli and his deputy Patrick Lumumba to suspend the demolition until further notice.

The two were in charge of the operation that lasted for almost four hours.

 “It is really regrettable for government to frustrate the lives of children like the ones we have seen here just because of those corrupt people who normally grab land from poor citizens. I am going to deal with them accordingly,” Mandago assured.

According to Eldoret West OCPD Ndung’u Waikonya, the eviction was done in accordance with a court order.

The court order reads in part: “It is hereby ordered that a permanent injunction is issued restraining the defendant, whether by themselves and their servants and agents, from remaining in the suit land”.

Effecting order

 It continues: “The defendants be evicted from the suit land and the Officer Commanding Police Station do effect the eviction”.

 Soi MP Edwin Barchilei and Kuinet Ward MCA Rebecca Magut accompanied the governor.

The leaders wondered why it had taken too long to effect the court order.

 The governor promised to liaise with the Kenya Red Cross Society to assist the affected families with food and bedding as they look for alternative settlement.