Agencies demolish Kibera structures on link road path

Pupils from two primary schools are among at least 30,000 Kibera residents affected by ongoing demolition of illegal structures on the path of a proposed Sh2bn link road.

Makina Self-help Primary School and Adventure Pride Centre were taken down in the early morning exercise.

Egesa Children’s Centre, a children’s home, was also affected. There was heavy security in the slums as the exercise kicked off at 5am.

Officers drawn from various security agencies patrolled the slum as bulldozers brought down the structures.

The construction of the Ngong Road-Kibera-Kiungu Karumba-Langata link road has been in limbo over fear that the residents will not move out of the road reserve.

The link road is part of national government plan to ease traffic congestion in the city, in bid to save the economy man-hours lost by the economy because of jams.

The demolition exercise had been extended by a week to allow residents affected by the road construction to vacate.

Officials from the Kenya Urban Roads Authority and National Building Inspectorate were on the ground as early as 5am to supervise the demolition.

But the residents have been peaceful since they had anticipated the demolitions following a series of meetings held beforehand.
Mr Ben Ooko, the founder of an initiative in the slum, Amani Kibera, said the meetings they held with the affected residents helped cool tensions.

Now the government faces another challenge after Amnesty International condemned the demolitions, citing breach of an agreement reached last week to first list and resettle the affected residents.