Uasin Gishu:Hundreds left homeless as county reclaims houses in arrears!
Some of the over 100 tenants evicted from Pioneer County Government houses/Photo James Gitaka
Close to 100 households were on Thursday evicted by the Uasin Gishu county enforcement officers from the Pioneer County government houses that have 200 units .
The Eviction that were carried out at 6;00am have left hundreds of the tenants homeless,
Eunice Onyango a tenant who has lived in the county offices for over 40 years, by 7:00pm she had no place to relocate her family , she claims no eviction notice was provided for them to prepare adequately ,
“I will be forced to spend the night in the cold including my grandchildren , we have an ongoing court case, we were shocked to see the enforcement officers raiding our homes very early in the morning ,they had no remorse some would be heard sharing these houses amongst themselves –this is inhuman “She sobbed.
Several Human Right activists were arrested for obstructing the county enforcement team and have vowed to fight for rights of the tenants,
“We are shocked the county government has disregarded the ongoing court case, The Operation was led by the Acting Director enforcement Mr Kosmas Kerich ,The law should be followed even as they embark in the evictions , no notice was provided not a court order ,these tenants have rights too,Said Evans Odhiambo one of the activist .
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.
The Eviction exercise is touted to take place in other County government houses .
Following the Eviction some of the Tenants within Pioneer Estate have raised their rents.
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