Court halts eviction of over 550 residents from settlement scheme along Southern Bypass

There is reprieve for over 550 residents of Animal Farm Association Settlement scheme located along the Southern Bypass Nairobi after the Environment and Lands court stopped their eviction.

Justice Oguttu Mboya barred the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) from evicting the said families pending the hearing of the application challenging the said eviction.

“An Interim Conservatory Order be and is hereby Issued to bar or prohibit the Respondents herein, or anyone of them, from carrying out and undertaking the imminent Eviction or Evacuation of the Petitioners or their Families from the Suit Property, pending the Inter Partes Hearing on the return Date,” read the order.

The residents made the application against NEMA, the Attorney General, the Chief Land Registrar and the Nairobi City County after they received a notice to vacate the said premises.

The residents alleged that they were served with a 30-day notice by the National Environmental Complaints Committee on February 9, asking them to vacate the property on grounds that it belongs to another person.

Through lawyer Justus Mutunga, the residents argued that they have lived in the property for over three decades having been resettled there in 1986  by the then President, the late Daniel Moi.

It is their argument that over time they have established their houses and businesses on the property, which they have known to be their home and source of their livelihoods.

However, the committee also claims that the informal settlement is next to the Nairobi National Park and that the residents had invaded the park and vandalised the fence and also engaged in innumerable crimes such as rape and theft.

Justice Mboya directed the application to be heard inter partes on March 22.