Residents of Nyama Villa estate in Kayole are facing eviction as property developer, Muthithi Investments Limited, is seeking to start demolitions of eighty houses in the area.
The private developer claimed that the eighty house owners within the area had not paid the fees agreed upon, therefore defying the company’s sale agreement.
Eluid Gitonga, an official from the property developer stated that of all the plots they had subdivided, 223 were either paid for or were still in the process of payment.
“We subdivided the land into 304 plots. We got the titles in the name of Muthithi Investments Company Limited and again they started paying,” he stated.
80 House Owners Face Eviction
However, Eliud revealed that the company had issued title deeds to 103 occupants who had purchased the land.
“103 of the occupants have since purchased the land and we have passed them the title deeds. 120 of them are still paying. Some of them through their financiers and others are paying through an arrangement with us, for cash payment,” he said.
He further stated that of all these, there were eighty house owners who had not shown any initiative towards paying for the land.
Also Read: Buying Land in Kenya? Here is What You Should Do First
“Eighty of them have not complied or paid anything, and those are the people we are now seeking to demolish their houses,” he clarified.
Nonetheless, Muthithi Investments had previously sued the eighty house owners for land grabbing.
According to the private developer, the house owners had invaded and settled on the land in 2002.
Previous Land Struggles in Kayole
Moreover, this is not the first time Muthithi Investments has been caught in a land scuffle.
In 2019, the property developer demolished houses in the Nyama Villa estate in Kayole leaving three thousand people homeless.
The case that led to the demolitions on the 20-acre land was ruled in 2014 in the Environment and Land court.
The claimants to the property made an appeal to the ruling citing that they had not been notified earlier on the evictions and that the demolitions had been done in a brutal manner.
Also Read: Portland Cement: We Warned Them and Gave Them Time to Move
“No eviction notice was issued to us. We were aware that there was a suit pending in court but no meeting had been convened by Muthithi to notify the families of the intended eviction,” the affidavit presented before the court on the matter stated.
However, the appellants lost the case.
Therefore, in December 2018, the demolitions began and only stopped after former President Uhuru Kenyatta intervened asking the developer to come to an agreement with the homeowners.
