Our Ref: Your Ref:

17 January 2022

To:

The Cabinet Secretary

Ministry of Interior and Coordination of the National Government

P.O Box 30510–00100

Nairobi, Kenya

To:

The Cabinet Secretary,

Ministry of Land and Physical Planning

Nairobi, Kenya.

To:

Director General

Nairobi Metropolitan Services

Nairobi, Kenya

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: Mukuru Forced Evictions and Resettlement

We, the forcibly evicted residents of Mukuru Kwa Njenga, write to you to raise the following matters of concern amid our public servants’ glaring omission in addressing our plight.

i. Who are the structure owners? Who has the register, asset inventories and maps of the structures?

ii. When was this information verified by the community of the affected persons?

iii. How many plots is the government enumerating in the settlement?

iv. Who are the owners of the 703 plots in the settlement?

i. What is the composition of the Resettlement Committee? How was it formed? To what extent does it reflect the objectives and aspirations of the Land Act on Resettlement? Who is representing the interest of the youth, women, Member of Parliament, County Government, National Land Commission, and other interest groups such as those living with disability, religious communities and CSO’s?

ii. Which data are the resettlement committee relying on to inform resettlement? Have these data been verified by the affected community? It is not lost on us that such situations on resettlement have been used to benefit government and political operatives who have benefited at the expense of the affected communities. The path chosen by the government has amounted to a theater of injustice, seeking to disenfranchise the vulnerable.

iii. The media did report on 14 January that 703 plots are owned by a private firm and that it is still not clear where residents shall be resettled. Therefore, on what basis do we have the resettlement committee? It is absurd to constitute a resettlement committee when, at the very onset of its mandate, it is not clear where the affected families are to be resettled.

iv. We are reliably informed that a resettlement action plan is being developed by the resettlement committee. Do we need a resettlement action plan in the first place? This question is important, since majority of us have been displaced. If, by any chance, data existed before the evictions, have those data been brought back to the community for verification and affirmation? Our fears remain that this process has been infiltrated by those with sustained personal interest in the community land and that they would illegitimately benefit from a process that seeks to legitimize rightful tenure holders and reward illegality.

We are dismayed that you have been negotiating with the so-called and yet-unidentified “owners of land”. The land question in this country has revolved around illicit titles. The question that you should be busy addressing is as to how the supposed owners of land acquired it. Are you recognizing the outcome of illegality again? The state must be ready to exercise its police power and imminent domain to protect its vulnerable populations. This is a minimum requirement to realize the social function of land, to which the Government of Kenya publicly committed itself in the New Urban Agenda (paras. 13 and 69). Why are the Ministry of Land and Ministry of the Interior so helpless to challenge the so-called “owners of land” who are brutalizing the vulnerable population?

We, therefore, submit the following demand that your office furnish us with responses to the above questions on the resettlement process, with urgency to details on:

Yours faithfully,

Christopher Otieno

Representatives of Mukuru Kwa Njenga Residents

Cc.

Kenya National Commission on Human Rights

Member of Parliament Embakasi South

Pamoja Trust

Amnesty International Kenya

Housing and Land Rights Network – Habitat International Coalition

Hakijamii

Grassroots Trust