Eviction legal: Turi

By LUKE KAMA and ALPHONSE PORAU
HOMES and properties were destroyed at Six-Mile in the National Capital District on Monday following an eviction by a company and police.
National Capital District Metropolitan Superintendent Benjamin Turi told The National that the court had issued an eviction notice.
He said the people had been given seven years to vacate the land. This was the second notice.
But resident John Yase, a public servant, told The National yesterday that the land belonged to customary landowners.
“Land portion 603 is not a State land,” Yase said.
“It’s customary land. We bought blocks from the landowner Saraga Sine. We are not illegal settlers occupying a State land.”
He questioned how the company, Alphes Construction and Sustainable Development Limited, obtained the title to the land and evicted them.
Yase said the company only measured the land blocks.
“They did not value the plants and the buildings and the properties,” he said.
“So the money they offered to us was not equivalent to what we invest to develop our blocks.
“The lowest they offer to a settler is K1000 and the highest for permanent or brick houses together with the block of land is K30,000.
“Most of us refused and we have taken the matter to court for the company to justify how they bypassed the customary landowners and the block holders and obtained the title from the Lands Department.”
Attempts by The National to get comments from the Lands Department and the developer yesterday were unsuccessful.
Turi said the people residing on the piece of land at Saraga 6-Mile were given money by the developer to move out but instead they used that money to pay for a lawyer to fight for the land.