Bulldozers to knock down more city homes

A high-end hotel popular with Somali MPs is one of the buildings set to be demolished in Eastleigh. (Read: More buildings demolished in Nairobi)

The 80-room Barakat hotel was officially opened by Internal Security Minister George Saitoti.

But on Tuesday, those in charge of bringing down buildings near Moi Air Base, marked it for demolition.

“This is not fair,” said Farhan Sheikh, a manager at the hotel. “We were given no notice. They just came and marked the building.”

The construction of the building, he said, had been approved by the local authority.

Furthermore, he said, he had read in the media that only buildings within 50 metres from the air base perimeter fence would be affected. The hotel is nearly 400 metres away, he said.

Elsewhere, scrap metal and wood dealers were the major beneficiaries as the demolitions entered their second day.

Scrap metal

Bulldozers brought down two more residential flats to secure the flight path of planes landing and taking off from the airbase.

More than 300 youths descended on the debris looking for any metallic object to salvage. They came with huge hammers and metal bars to break concrete blocks.

The young men and women claimed that they had been allowed by the owners to pick out the scrap metals.

They started with the flattened fence where they pulled off the mesh before shattering the concrete poles for metal. They then moved into digging through the mountain of collapsed walls.

Buyers of the metal, who stood nearby, loaded them on carts and ferried them away.

A kilo of metal was bought at Sh30. The dealers then transported them to welders who would twist them into new frames.

A metal dealer, Mr Joseph Kirimi, said the houses were still new and so was the metal which they would use to make other items.

For wood however, it was not the weight that mattered, but the number of pieces you could tie together. For Sh20, you could get at most four pieces of split wood.

A former resident, Ms Carol Indiasi, who relocated to Mathare slums said she would carry home the remaining pieces.

The military says the demolitions are aimed at securing air force planes landing at taking off at the air base.

The planes are playing a crucial role in the campaign against Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia. Moi Air Base is being used to resupply the troops with ammunition, fuel and food.

Sources said the buildings could serve as cover for Al-Shabaab sympathisers out to revenge.