The Nairobi County Assembly is looking to pass a law that will set out appropriate procedures for eviction, demolitions and resettlement in the county.
The Nairobi City County Evictions, Resettlement and Demolitions Control Bill 2020, sponsored by Parklands MCA Jayendra Malde, seeks to streamline the demolition of unauthorised structures in Nairobi.
Over the years, Nairobi residents have become used to haphazard property demolitions, many a time without any eviction notice. The Bill is currently in the second reading. If successfully passed, it will stop the weekend demolitions that have become the norm, ostensibly to take advantage of the fact that courts do not sit on weekends and are therefore unlikely to issue emergency orders stopping such exercises.
Resettlement program
The Bill further proposes that such evictions be carried out during good weather with no heavy equipment used except for permanent structures. In cases where people are being evicted from public land, it should have been set aside for a public utility, with the government or county demonstrating its plans to roll out an infrastructure project on the said land.
An eviction will also been done where premises pose danger to a person or the public such as railroad tracks, garbage dumpsites, riverbanks, shorelines, waterways and public places like sidewalks, roads, parks or playgrounds. However, a demolition order from a competent court must be issued to the concerned person who must have also been served with at least seven-day notice to show cause why such order should not be made.
The proposed Bill will mandate the county to resettle evictees from public land as well as those displaced due to internal strife or acts of war. The County will be tasked to prepare a resettlement plan before carrying out the evictions. This will include negotiations and agreements with representatives of the affected families and the communities where they are to be resettled.
