Nairobi house demolitions leave thousands homeless

More than 7,000 Kenyans are homeless and living in makeshift homes after the government evicted them by force.

Residents of Kariobangi and Korogocho, poor informal settlements, woke this week to the sound of bulldozers crushing their rickety structures, made of metal sheeting.

Edith Nyambura said Saturday her home was demolished without notice very early in the morning.

Her family is now living in a makeshift tent built out of plastic sheets and blankets.

"I am sorry to say that the government is not seeing us as human beings," she said. "We are being taken like goats or sheep."

The demolitions, which started Monday, continued throughout the week and displaced thousands of residents, who are sleeping out in the rain and cold because Nairobi has restrictions on movement due to the coronavirus.

Many of the residents returned to their former homes on Saturday morning to try and scavenge for anything useful they could sell for money or use to rebuild their homes.

The government claims that it owns the land where the demolitions took place.

It knocked down the slum despite a court order that barred it from evicting the residents until their case, arguing for their right to live on the land, is determined.

On Saturday morning politicians handed out food parcels to needy families.

Nairobi senator Johnson Sakaja said authorities were doing their best to support the poor, but he declined to comment on the evictions.