Scores of Maweni residents in Malindi town, Kilifi County, are crying foul after their houses were demolished Wednesday to pave the way for the construction of a road.
The residents claimed that they had not been given adequate notice to vacate the land earmarked for the construction of the road from Pentagon area to the Jesus Cares Centre (JCC) church.
Some said they had lived in the area for more than 30 years and had been promised that they would be relocated to an alternative land, something the Kilifi County Government had not done prior to the demolition. They watched in disbelief as the permanent and semi-permanent structures were being demolished by bulldozers while others made frantic efforts to salvage their property to avoid more losses.
Balozi Raphael Ramadhani, a resident, said they were not aware that the land on which they had constructed their houses had been earmarked for construction of the road and added that they had agreed with the authorities to be relocated to either Shakahola or near the Malindi Garbage Dumpsite in Mayungu area.
“This issue started during the Moi era. During the Kibaki era, then Malindi Member of Parliament Gideon Mung’aro (now Kilifi Governor) promised that we would be given alternative land, but now we do not know what is going on,” he lamented.
He pleaded with the county government to keep their promises and give them alternative land that they had agreed on. Julia Mapenzi, who owns a palm wine joint (mangwe) in the area said more than 50 women had been affected by the demolition and pleaded with Malindi Member of Parliament Amina Laura Mnyazi to come to their aid.
“This place has been holding more than50 single mothers who are taking care of their families. We have loans to settle. Where are we going to get money to pay for our children’s school fees?” lamented Mapenzi. Fredrick Ngumbao, a resident, said that county government officials had earlier identified land measuring nine metres wide for the construction of the road and wondered why after the work had commenced, the authorities decided to increase the road’s size to thirty metres.
“What is more painful is that we were not given adequate time to remove our items, and as I speak, the bulldozer is destroying a lot of our household goods,” he lamented. Efforts to contact the Malindi Sub County Administrator, Mr. Dadu Chome, were fruitless as he did not pick calls.
However, a representative of Shella Ward Member of County Assembly Twahir Abdulkarim said the residents had been duly informed of the intention to build a road in the area and that public participation was carried out before the commencement of the project.
He explained that initially, the contractor had started work on private land and had to be stopped so that the correction was cleared for work to resume.