Bulldozers raze Maasai manyattas

Maasai manyattas (huts) in Embakasi, Nairobi, were on Thursday demolished in ongoing government efforts to clear settlements said to have been illegally built on a land belonging to Kenya Airports Authority.

The demolitions went on as four parliamentary committees teamed up to conduct investigations into the demolitions of houses in Syokimau over the weekend. (READ: More airport homes knocked down)

The joint team has two weeks to dig into the land ownership saga and the decision to bring down the houses. The team will also look into evictions in Kyang’ombe and Maasai villages.

The investigating team brings together members of the Administration of Justice and National Security Committee, Local Authorities Committee, Transport, Public Works and Housing committees and Lands Committee.

House Speaker Kenneth Marende and temporary Speaker Joyce Laboso directed the committees to expedite the investigations and report back to the House as soon as possible.

The team under its chairman, the Reverend Mutava Musyimi, who was appointed on Thursday, will hold its first session on Tuesday with victims of the demolitions.

It is also set to meet with Kenya Ports Authority later on Tuesday afternoon. The committees have also summoned Mavoko County Council and the Nairobi City Council for a meeting on Wednesday.

Mounds of red earth

Meetings with the ministers for Lands, Local Government, Transport, Housing and Nairobi Metropolitan and Attorney-General will also be held between Thursday and Friday.

Kathiani MP Wavinya Ndeti, and her Embakasi counterpart, Mr Ferdinand Waititu, will also be questioned on various angles of the evictions and demolitions.

On Thursday, government bulldozers rolled into the manyattas and in just an hour left piles of crumpled pieces of metal and mounds of red earth that once were the mud walls, foam mattresses and ripped plastic bags in places the shacks once stood.

Even a church was not spared. The government then turned its attention to the manyattas after the High Court on Wednesday stopped further demolitions in Syokimau. The shacks were not covered by the injunction.