Enosupukia evictees seek audience with President Uhuru Kenyatta
The Enosupukia evictees outside State House, Nairobi on Wednesday September 10, 2014. They sought to have audience with President Uhuru Kenyatta over their plight. PHOTO | MIKKEL DANIELSEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- They said they were evicted from Enosupukia in Narok between 1992 and 1994 and have never been compensated.
- Security officers asked them to move away from the precincts of State House telling them that it was a protected area.
- The group claims they were removed from Enosupukia on the incitement of politicians causing them to flee and scatter around the country.
- In 2012, the more than 3500 evictees gave the government a three week ultimatum to address their woes.
A group of people who claim they were evicted from Narok 20 years ago Wednesday camped outside the State House gate in Nairobi demanding resettlement by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
They arrived in their hundreds, old and young to protest what they termed as delayed compensation from the government after spending two decades as squatters.
According to Mr Peter Kamau, the group’s chairman, the families were evicted from Enosupukia between 1992 and 1994 and have never been compensated.
“We have waited for 20 years. We have gone to every office right from Narok to the National Assembly,” he told Nation.co.ke while showing a file full of documents from various government offices.
The Enosupukia evictees march towards State House in their bid to have audience with President Uhuru Kenyattta.
Security officers asked them to move away from the precincts of State House telling them that it was a protected area.
Still, they refused to move until Kilimani OCPD Peter Kattami addressed them.
“You may have genuine concerns but this is a protected area which is respected even internationally. You cannot demonstrate here.
“We need you to go to the relevant offices and present your complaints there or you can go to Uhuru Park,” he told them.
The group claims they were removed from Enosupukia on the incitement of politicians causing them to flee and scatter around the country.
They said they ended up in Kiambu, Nyandarua and Nakuru counties.
In a letter they addressed to the Ministry of Devolution in 2013, the evictees claim that while the government argued they had been staying on government protected land, the same pieces were allocated to other people.
Kilimani OCPD Peter Kattami addresses the group outside State House, Nairobi.
“Politics was used as a tool to evict the Enosupukia families and now we demand for our rights to be recognised just as the Constitution stipulates in the Bill of Rights,” they wrote in the letter dated June 19, 2013.
“Since 1994, we have made frantic efforts to visit different government offices seeking help but to no avail,” the letter further read.
In July 2014, the parliamentary Departmental Committee on Lands toured the area to interview locals after receiving a petition from the evictees.
In 2012, the more than 3500 evictees gave the government a three week ultimatum to address their woes failure to which they said they would camp outside government offices.
