Court declines to stop Portland land house demolitions

Mavoko MP Partrick Makau addressing the press on the fraudulent sale of the East Africa Portland Cement land and demolition of houses after a grilling session at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters in Kiambu County on Wednesday, October 18, 2023. [David Gichuru, Standard]

While seeking the court's intervention, Aimi argued the demolitions were against the United Nation's convention on eviction.

They asserted that demolishing the properties built on the contested land was heartless and had rendered the occupants homeless without adequate notice.

According to them, their case on whether the title was valid, has never been determined. However, Portland, argued that Aimi and third-party buyers should leave as they hindered it from enjoying its right to property.

Two weeks ago, Justice Nyukuri struck out the case filed 10 years ago for failing to comply with the court orders.

The judge observed that the court had accommodated Aimi officials several times but they never served their court parties to all the parties in the case.

On May 17, 2023, a dispute was mentioned before the same judge. She directed the squatters to physically serve the court papers to all the parties who they had listed, failure to which, the court would strike out the case.

The judge set October 9 as the mention date to confirm whether Aimi officials had obeyed the orders. When they appeared on the 9th, Aimi informed the court that they were unable to serve the court papers.

[email protected]