City Hall halts building on wetland

The villas at the centre of the controversy. City Hall officials on August 11, 2015 stormed the site in Kibagare Valley, Nairobi, and ordered the developer to stop construction. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The officials from the Building, Audit and Inspection Department arrived at Kibagare Valley on Lower Kabete Road in the morning, prompting some builders to jump over the perimeter fence to escape arrest.
  • The worker said he and some colleagues had fled when the officials tried to arrested them. He said they had at the time not started working but were just demanding payment of their salaries, which had been delayed.

City Hall officials yesterday stormed a site where villas are being built on riparian land in Nairobi, arrested two people and stopped the construction.

The officials from the Building, Audit and Inspection Department arrived at Kibagare Valley on Lower Kabete Road in the morning, prompting some builders to jump over the perimeter fence to escape arrest.

On Friday last week, a team from the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) also made a surprise visit and arrested two builders.

Nema had earlier issued an order stopping the construction. The directive has, however, been challenged before the National Environment Tribunal by the developer of Alina Villas.

Yesterday, the county government team arrested a man guarding the site and a manager of Sound Equipment Limited, the company developing the residential properties.

“They came and arrested our manager and a security guard for no good reason,” said a worker, who asked not to be named over fears about his own security.

The worker said he and some colleagues had fled when the officials tried to arrest them. He said they had at the time not started working but were just demanding payment of their salaries, which had been delayed.

The City Hall officials marked the main entrance of the site with an ‘X’, indicating that the construction should stop.

They also wrote the words: “Illegal development” and “Remove”.

Nairobi City County Government Communication Director Beryl Okundi denied any knowledge of the incident. “Those were not our officials,” she said.

Earlier, the Lands ministry had ordered the developer to stop the construction on grounds that the villas were being put up on a wetland.

Suspended Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu early in the year visited the site to ensure the directive was followed.

However, the managers of Sound Equipment said on Monday they were putting up the villas after obtaining a court order restraining the Lands Cabinet Secretary and the Attorney-General from interfering with their project.