Narasha Evictions

Description

THE EVICTIONS
On day two we picked one of our contacts a resident of Narasha who took us round the expansive land and introduced us to community elders. According to our contact Peter (not his real name) the violent and inhumane eviction was carried out by hired youth believed to be members of a proscribed sect , Administration Police (AP) under Naivasha District Officer 1(who was then acting as DO), the Nakuru County Commissioner and the auctioneer. The youth arrived in 20 Nissans with an escort of 4 AP land cruisers and three dogs from dog units. An attempt by guards to inquire into the activities of the convoy were stopped when one the police commanding the operation called a KWS corporal on duty who instructed the guards to allow them in and not to take any details.
The demolition squad then proceeded to Narasha where the youth unleashed terror on the residents as AP kept vigil while at times firing live bullets indiscriminately to scare away locals, its alleged that the youth were hired and paid 15,000/= in advance to accomplish the mission. The some of the locals we interviewed alleged that an Asian construction company called Sasmeta and KenGen were seen supplying the hired youth with petrol that was used to torch the houses.
After an approximately 8 hours of terror the arsonists with all manner of crude weapons and under the protection of armed police had destroyed 240 houses, rendered 2,300 people homeless, killed over 20 calves and 400 lambs. The families’ attempt to resist the eviction was violently crushed by the police , two elderly Maasai men sustained bullet wounds as well as cuts from machetes and are recuperating in hospitals.
LOOTING AND DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY
In the process of torching the houses the police and the hired youth looted valuables like Television sets, radios, solar panels and house hold goods. One woman narrated how the police took away her chicken and cloths that she had salvaged from the raging fire; they even threw back into the fire some of the things. She said that one of the police kept on abusing her at one instance he shouted in Kiswahili, ‘hii ni serikali ya kusema na kutenda mtaondoka kwa nguvu, hii sio serikali mliozoea ya mzee’. Emotions still runs high as some of the women and their children broke into tears saying that they knew no other home. The families added that they had not been served with an eviction notice and accused the armed officers of using excessive force to evict them. The eviction rendered the victims homeless and it involved the use of violence against residents, including several reported severe injuries due to blunt objects cuts and beatings. These forced evictions were carried out with insufficient prior notice and in cold, rainy weather conditions.
The police used live ammunition in destroying property in one case an iron sheet build house was riddled with bullet holes that could have caused death in case the owners were in. A car was smashed leaving its windscreens shuttered, side mirrors vandalized and its tyres flattened. The eviction it is alleged followed an order issued by J Mwaniki, who is the deputy registrar at the Nakuru law courts, and was directed to 205 families living on land No. Narok/Maella estate 8398/2. The order directed the County Commissioner or the DC to provide security by deploying security officers to assist the Tango auctioneers evict the Maasai community living on the land. Despite denial by the Government that it was unaware of the land eviction, senior Government officers had been informed of the exercise and even went further to participating in the eviction. According to an officer in Naivasha, senior Government officers in the Ministry of Internal Security and Nakuru County commissioner were aware of the evictions exercise. It’s alleged that the plans to evict the families started after a meeting between members of the Maasai community, Government officials and Ngátia farmers’ cooperative representatives failed to get a solution.