Nowhere to go: The agony of women kicked out of Njiru

At the crack of dawn on March 26, 2021, Ms Jecinta Wanjiku Macharia and her family were woken up by teargas canisters.

Alongside other residents of Kware Estate in Njiru, they were forced to prematurely throw away their blankets to check what was happening.

A contingent of security officers accompanied by local authority leadership had lobbed teargas at them, claiming it was “a multi-agency operation, which needed no questions”.

Ms Macharia, a mother of one with another on the way, had no choice but to comply.

“We were woken up at 3am, ‘to pave way for bulldozers’, as the police officers fired teargas in the premises,” she recalls.

Whenever there is violence or conflicts, women and children suffer the most, and the experience of Njiru evictees was not different.

Ms Macharia is a victim of the recent demolitions in the sub-county, in the outskirts of Nairobi. It left an untold story of women and children subjected to anguish.

They suffered in the eyes of authorities, which should have protected and addressed their predicaments.

Trail of debris

Within no time, her house which was among the first structures to be descended on, was brought down. The demolitions, undertaken for a number of days, left a trail of rubbles and debris in its wake, as residents helplessly watched their hard-earned investments turn to nothing.

As she painfully narrates, Ms Macharia says she salvaged nothing, at a time Covid-19 pandemic is ravaging the economy.

“I only rescued my three-year-old son and the clothes we wore. All crucial documents, including certificate of ownership of my land parcel and national identification card were lost,” she says, as she controls tears trickling down her cheeks.

What hurts her most is that she made efforts to convince a police officer to allow her to at least rescue some stuff in vain. She wonders if those authorised to conduct evictions, which she terms as ‘heartless and inhumane’, have families.

“He said the order ‘came from above’. They dug trenches to prevent any vehicle from ferrying what we could manage to salvage,” Ms Macharia says, insisting they were not given any notice to vacate.

Hers, she says, is a tale of moving from a homeowner to nothing. She bought the parcel, which measured 30 by 60 meters, in 2018 at a cost of Sh330,000.

Rental houses

“My husband is a hawker. We toiled and sacrificed to vacate rental houses to own a home in Nairobi. We spent more than Sh400, 000 to make the parcel a home. We are now beggars, relying from well-wishers,” she explains.

Ms Macharia, 25, reveals that she fell sick after the demolitions.  

“I am still under medication. We live by the grace of God; my husband’s hustle brings in merely Sh200 a day, only enough for our upkeep. I am unable to work because of my current condition, expecting a second baby,” she says.

Within the first few days after the demolitions, she was hosted by a family member. She has since moved to Mukuru Kwa Reuben, one of the slums in Nairobi.

We find her in the 10 by 10 meters mabati rental house, next to a sewage river.

“Everything you see here was gifted by Good Samaritans,” she discloses.

She now uses a paraffin stove jiko to cook despite her current condition. The environment she resides in worries her a lot.

“When it rains, the water level in the river rises and sweeps away the structures. This is also where you hear houses are brought down by infernos. I cannot leave behind my child to go look for hustles,” she says, noting that her husband’s income can’t afford them a decent house.

Her ordeal is not different from that of Eunice Wachira, whose house was also demolished. She is a mother of two aged nine and one.

“My youngest son was born with blood pressure. I take him to clinic every week, and this comes with expenses,” she reveals.

She too, bought her parcel of land, which measured 30 by 60 meters, in 2018 from someone she says had owned it for more than 10 years.

“We acquired it through a family friend who travelled overseas, at a cost of Sh280,000 and spent more than Sh800,000, loan funds to make it a home,” says Ms Wachira, noting that her husband was a truck driver at that time.

The couple still has an outstanding loan.

After the eviction, Ms Wachira, 28, and her two children were taken in by her aunt in Kahawa West, Nairobi.

 “We share what I gather from hawking clothes. My husband is a long distance matatu driver, and when cessation of movement was imposed in the Covid-prevalent counties, his job came to a standstill. We have tried to engage some elected leaders to assist my niece, in vain,” laments Judy Mwihaki, Ms Wachira’s aunt.

Ms Wachira has since moved to a mabati rental house.

The outcry of the two mothers, following the Njiru demolitions, reflects the agony of other women and children who were also affected. More than 5,000 people were left homeless.

“On the fateful day, I was called at around 4am. I had not been notified of the demolitions and knew nothing about it. I am a mother and I equally understand the predicaments the evictees were subjected to,” Teresia Wambui Njoroge, the chief of Njiru Location tells nation.africa.

Ms Wambui insists the land in question is a private entity and does not belong to the government.

It is alleged that the land belongs to Njiru Ageria Company, and there has been controversy surrounding its ownership for more than 20 years.

Victims of the eviction, however, claim the certificate issued for their parcels’ ownership states the land belongs to Investors Settlement Field, a squatters’ initiative.

While the evictees term the exercise illegal and one which did not follow the rule of law, local security leadership says they are not answerable.

“It was a multi-agency approach and when such occurs, there is no comment or answer,” Kayole OCPD Paul Wambugu said in a separate interview.

The officer declined to confirm whether there was a court order or eviction notice issued.

On the legitimacy of the eviction that rendered thousands homeless, subjected women and children to pain, Mr Gerald Muchiri, a lawyer, says the affected should have been issued with notice(s) before the demolitions commenced.  

“The notice should not be shorter than 30 days. In case rule of law was not applied, a High Court petition citing violation of a barrage of human rights for remedies such as compensation, declaration that they were entitled to be there at the time of demolitions to rescue their properties, can be filed,” advises Mr Muchiri, adding that a notice cannot generally state ‘vacate’, but rather describes the land concerned and why they should be evicted.

Njiru demolitions occurred a year after a similar one happened in Ruai and Kariobangi Sewage. To date, the evictees are still languishing.