Kibera residents uproot railway line

Residents of Kibera slums in Nairobi on Wednesday uprooted part of a railway line cutting across the slum to protest at the disconnection of illegal power lines.

Police and residents engaged in running battles for the better part of the afternoon, as the people tried to stop Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) employees from doing their work.

Police used teargas and fired gunshots in the air to disperse the crowds. They responded with stones.

Lynching threat

When the officers from KPLC arrived to disconnect the power, the residents started throwing stones at them, and they requested security from Serang’ombe chiefs camp.

“Things were getting out of hand,” said a KPLC employee who gave his name as Polycarp. The crowd threatened to lynch them should they continue to dismantle a transformer outside the Kibera Olympic Primary School, he said.

But the officers who rushed to the rescue were overwhelmed by the crowd surging from both sides of the road, and another team was called in from Kilimani Police Station. The arrival of the new officers sparked more violence.

When the mob was cordoned off the main transformer, it threatened to uproot the railway and accused police of “spoiling” the good life they were enjoying.

By the time of going to press, about 20 metres of the railway had been uprooted, by the mob, which asked police to go to Migingo Island instead.

The island is at the centre of an ownership row between Kenya and Uganda.