Nairobi Governor Sonko Receives Backlash for Evicting Pangani Tenants at Midnight

By Virginia Mwangi / July 17, 2019

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko Mbuvi has come out in his old style of losing his cool to call out twitter users insolently for having criticized his government’s move to evict Pangani residents at midnight.

The Pangani eviction that has today seen the County Government pay Twitter influencers to push the #SonkoPanganiUpgrade had elicited criticism following the County’s move to evict the residents at night.

Sonko, on the morning of 17^th July, began a storm by quoting a tweet questioning the manner in which the eviction had been done especially having been late into the night. Sonko, as usual, used language that is not expected of a person holding his office, below is tweet:

Take your NONSENSE to hell. Those not paid are the ones who refused to take the money, and we are not going to pay them. Let them go to court. We shall not allow development plans to be politicised. https://t.co/WOhG67b5N2 pic.twitter.com/wq3fpwlelb
— Mike Sonko (@MikeSonko) July 17, 2019

Governor Sonko contradicted his Tuesday, 16th July, statement, when he had said all the tenants had been compensated, as he tweeted, on 17^th July, that there was indeed a section of Pangani estate residents who were not paid as they had not come into agreement. Below is Sonko’s post on 16^th July on Facebook

“We should not politicize development. 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 projects is complete and they’ve documents to that effect. The likes of senior citizens like Mzee Gitu Kahengere and many other God-fearing tenants who cannot lie complied with the agreement and vacated the houses but 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 this project. Since we had served them with notices. 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. They are all LANDLORDS IN WAITING.”

Pangani is one of the estates in Nairobi earmarked for the ambitious affordable housing projects and the Nairobi County, in a bid to acquire land to provide the location for the housing project, negotiated with the tenants to relocate for 600,000 shillings.

A number of the tenants did not agree as they faulted the County, arguing that 600,000 shillings were too little to afford anybody housing in Nairobi or rather to compensate for what the County was taking away from them.

The Nairobi Governor has faced criticism for not settling the matter amicably with ALL the tenants and instead gone ahead to dehumanize them and disregard their rights through demolishing their homes in the late hours of the night, 30 minutes to midnight, to be most precise. Below are views from a number of members of public online:

I have never know why this country people get away with hurting others…In other jurisdictions Sonko would be fighting impeachment. We must restore dignity in this country
— #FreeKenya Nicholas Oyoo (@oyookraft) July 16, 2019

Mike lacks leadership skills..just PR..it’s like buying chips kuku kufika nyumbani hakuna kuku Ndani..
— sasala Benson (@sasala1) July 17, 2019

You are a sick man in the head. You cannot forcefully evict people at night because they refused to be paid what they deemed wasn’t fair enough. You take such matters to court . There is civility and decorum when dealing with such matters and not some juvenile ad hominem.
— nicht (@therealgakio) July 17, 2019