Over 100 tenants were evicted from the Pioneer County government houses due to rent arrears.
The exercise that was conducted by the County askaris in the wee hours of the morning affected over 200 units.
Eunice Onyango one of the tenants said she had nowhere to go since she had lived there for over 40 years and had no intention of moving to another place.
“It’s sad that today I have been evicted from where I called home for many years and I will be forced to spend the night in the cold. We were not given any eviction notice for us to prepare adequately,” said Onyango while speaking to the press.
She said they were evicted forcedly and they were not given time to look for alternative places.
Several Human Rights activists were arrested for obstructing and blocking the exercise but were later released after paying bond.
“We are shocked the county government has disregarded the ongoing court case, The law should be followed even as they embark on the evictions, no notice was provided not a court order, these tenants have rights too,” said Evans Odhiambo one of the activists.
Mukami Agatha another activist says the evictions were inhuman and the County government could have given them time to look for alternative places.
“We are shocked with what is happening at Pioneer the County government could have given them a notice before embarking on the evictions. We also condemn the arrest of the activist this is uncalled for and ill-intended since thye did not temper with the exercise,” she said.
The County Government has however noted tenants with rent arrears accruing to more than Sh 22M will not be spared.
“As a department, we have established that those with arrears over Ksh. 200,000 are more than a hundred in Pioneer Estate alone accumulating a total of ksh.22 million, We have begun this exercise and we intend to continue further until all arrears are paid fully. We gave out notice of compliance severally and we want to appreciate those who headed the call and paid off. We shall reclaim back all houses that are in arrears,” said Ag. Director Housing Ms. Beatrice Menjo.
Administrator Lands and Housing Mr. Sila Boit together with the principal of Housing Mr. Isaac Sang said that the eviction process will be smooth and all tenants are advised to pay up the rent before their tenancy term ends.
Ms. Menjo noted that with today’s eviction alone, the County has received a great response from the tenants with a collection hitting over Ksh. 1 million within its day one of the operation.
“The exercise hasn’t been easy but it’s all worth the effort, we hope all the tenants will comply as we also go farther to all our estates until we attain 100% compliance,” said Ms. Menjo.
