Nairobi governor Mike Sonko has said that the county has no apologies for Pangani Estate tenants whose houses were demolished.
According to Sonko, the houses which belong to the county were to be demolished in 2016 but politics and “bad leadership” played in delaying construction of new affordable housing.
The governor revealed that the residents were compensated with Ksh600,000 each to pave way for construction of affordable housing, but have been adamant in shifting.
“The affordable housing project was supposed to start in 2016 but due to bad leadership and politics nothing happened. The tenants were compensated with Kshs 600,000/= to relocate to other areas to pave way for the construction of new 1588 housing units. They were even given the first priority to acquire and occupy the new houses, once phase one of the project is complete and they’ve documents to that effect,” Sonko wrote of his Facebook page.
Read: Pangani Residents Left In The Cold As County Askaris Forcefully Evict Them
On Monday, Pangani Estate tenants spent the night in the cold after Nairobi County bulldozers descended on their houses forcefully evicting them.
Sonko says that the government had shown them goodwill, but they opted to go to court, delaying planned projects.
“There are those who after taking the money refused to vacate and instead took the county Government to court even after showing them all this goodwill. The court did not issue any orders restraining us from starting the this project,” he added.
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He further said that the residents will be given first priority in the new houses that will be built.
” We have no regrets or apologies to make. However, our offer still stands and I hereby again repeat myself that all the old tenants shall be the first ones to occupy the new units,” he said.
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