The family of a 70-year-old widow in South B, Nairobi, is spending nights in the cold following an eviction from their home of more than 20 years, despite obtaining an order barring their removal.
Janet Nyaguthi and her family were evicted from the land on June 17, despite an order from the Business Premises and Rent Tribunal issued two weeks earlier.
The widow says that she does not know the invaders, maintaining that the property is hers and that she has been paying land rates to City Hall.
“I have no landlord, this is my property. The invaders are strangers to me,” the widow said.
Harun Nyakundi Nyambariga and Carren Moraa Tweya relied on an order issued on June 5, stemming from a case they filed at the tribunal claiming that Ms Nyaguthi had defaulted on a monthly rent of Sh50,000.
“That the tenant (Nyaguthi) to hand over vacant possession of the premises to the applicants/landlords and in default the applicant landlords to evict her,” the magistrate ordered.
The tribunal also ordered that the widow pay Nyambariga and Tweya Sh20,000 in legal fees.
However, Ms Nyaguthi went to the tribunal and insisted that she owned the property, resulting in another order being issued on June 16 to prevent her eviction.
In a notice to Nyaguthi dated February 11, Nyambariga and Tweya had given her four months to vacate the property.
“We would like to occupy the premises for our own use for a period of not less than one year,” the landlord said.
The tribunal heard that the tenant had been given one month to agree to the notice or refute it in writing.
“We pray this court to intervene and we be given the necessary orders plus cost,” urged the petitioners in the case heard on May 22, 2026.
After receiving the tribunal’s order, the widow filed a rejoinder under a certificate of urgency seeking a stay of her eviction, saying the two applicants were not her landlords.
The widow sought a stay of the orders granted to the two landlords on June 5, 2026, saying she had not been given an opportunity to defend herself.
“That pending the hearing of this application an order be and is hereby issued restraining Nyambariga and Moraa and their agents, servants, auctioneers and or any person acting under their instructions from evicting, interfering with, dispossessing or otherwise disturbing the applicant’s possession and occupation of the suit premises,” the tribunal ruled.
The tribunal also ordered that the case by the widow against the said landlords be heard on July 2, 2026, before another magistrate.
“Take notice that any disobedience or nonobservance of the order of the court served herewith will result in penal consequences to you and any other person(s) disobeying and not observing the same,” says the court in a penal notice.
Nyaguthi and her family have since been camping outside what they called home for years, as they await the hearing date.
