MP claims PM Odinga behind Embakasi demolitions

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been mentioned as among those behind the demolitions in Kyang'ombe, Nairobi.

MP Ferdinand Waititu (Embakasi) also claimed that Finance assistant minister Oburu Oginga, Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo and Lawi Kiplagat were also involved.

He said he had “over 20 copies of title deeds” on which he was carrying out searches both in the Ministry of Lands and the Registrar of Companies to identify the faces behind the firms involved in the displacement of Kyang’ombe residents.

He said the searches so far had revealed that the PM, his brother Dr Oginga, Mr Jirongo and Mr Kiplagat all had plots in the area.

Mr Odinga, Dr Oginga, a Mr Walter Edwin Okwirry Akuku and Julius Rado were mentioned as shareholders in a company, called Newspoint Limited, which, according to Mr Waititu, has a title to the land.

Mr Waititu, also an assistant minister in Kenya’s coalition government, said the demolitions were executed to create space for the land barons.

“It is true that most of the demolitions were done outside the flight-path. Why were they demolished at this time? Somebody took advantage of the fact that right now people might be in fear as a result of the security problem because of Al Shabaab,” said the Embakasi MP.

Mr Waititu said the House inquiry into the demolitions carried the hopes of the victims in Kyang’ombe, Maasai and KPA villages in his constituency. He said that the committee had an obligation to put a stop to the matter and make sure “these people pay”.

He promised to table more names as soon as he concluded the searches. The MP issued a ban notice to all those involved in the land-grabbing not to set foot in Embakasi.

“These people are not welcome to Embakasi for touring or campaigns, unless they forfeit that land,” said Mr Waititu. He said that the residents “shall not entertain anybody coming with bulldozers at night".

“It will be a different story, because right now we are threatened,” said the MP.

He said the police too had been pushed to carry out the evictions.

“The police were not following the law; they were following instructions of big people in this country.  There were 500 police officers. Some even told me that their instructions were to arrest me, so that the demolitions will be carried out when I am in (jail); then later charge me with incitement. They’re used to arresting me,” said Mr Waititu

He blamed the City Council, terming it as a “notorious” den of corruption.

At the same time, assistant minister Wavinya Ndeti has termed the demolitions of buildings in Syokimau area as “unlawful.” The Kathiani MP told the Joint Parliamentary Committee investigating the matter that the manner in which the demolitions were carried out was “undignified and inhuman”.

“These children, and their fathers and their mothers, who were woken up by bulldozers, was that dignified?” the MP posed.

The MP told the committee jointly chaired by MPs Mutava Musyimi and Fred Kapondi that the maps obtained from the Lands Office show that the borders of her constituency had been altered, without consultation.

She said Machakos County borders had been shifted many times “first pushed from Museum Hill to Kariokor and then to Cabanas”.

“We are not going to allow our land to be taken away like that. Some time I tell the people in the Ministry of Lands that they can stay with the papers, we stay with the land. It has been very difficult for us to get title deeds.

"We’ve been oppressed. Who changed our boundaries and when were they changed? This has been in Mavoko, when did it come to Nairobi?” questioned Ms Ndeti in her emotional presentation to the committee.

She said all victims of the demolitions ought to be compensated, because they lost their lifetime savings.

“I want my people compensated,” said  Ms Ndeti.

The two assistant ministers said they don’t own any land in the affected areas. They said it is political games being played out.

Similarly, Kamukunji MP Hassan Yusuf blamed the City Council and said that the affected people in Eastleigh should all be compensated.

On Thursday, the committee is scheduled to meet the Director of Survey and the Commissioner of Lands, to find the truth about the validity of titles and the maps.