Cruel State Land Grabbing in Makongeni Has to be Stopped. Ruto Govt Committing a Crime Against Humanity There

The government allegedly gave the tenants whose homes are being torn down in Makongeni Sh. 150,000 each which this nut case HS Hinga says is rent for 9 years and those evictees have all that money to rent new houses now.

Where in Kenya, leave alone Nairobi, can you rent anything to live in even a tent, for Sh. 150,000 for 9 years. These buildings burnt down by the government in Makongeni were like slave quarters for civil servants and workers who worked for the White colonial government from 1896 to 1963 and beyond that when the Kenyan governments went on with colonial working and housing plans for Kenyan workers. That was ukoloni mambo leo.

Today those houses in Makongeni are relics which are hardly habitable but instead of the Kenya government with their new hyped Affordable Housing plans rebuilding those homes into affordable housing for those who already live there, the government gives them pennies to disappear as homeless in the slums.

The government would rather build houses in Makongeni for rich people who look at the land there and feel it is a waste to have all those poor people there. Just kick them out and turn the buildings into rubbles like in Gaza and problem solved. Maybe not.

According to media reports, Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga has said that the demolition of housing units in Makongeni Estate is part of the ongoing Nairobi Eastlands regeneration programme, and that the majority of affected tenants were compensated.

Speaking during an interview on Citizen TV on Tuesday, PS Hinga explained that Eastlands covers roughly 3,100 acres and was originally planned to house 17,000 households, a density he characterised as inefficient at a time when the city’s population continues to grow.

Of the 3,600 tenants listed for relocation, the PDS noted that 3,300 have already been paid via M-Pesa. 

Among the challenges for completing the payments, he pointed out, include verification issues such as mismatched identification numbers. 

“Tenants in Makongeni were paid, but others who have sublet their houses did not inform their subtenants of the same. Legally, we have no obligation to the subtenants but we have agreed they too will be paid the Ksh.150,000, which is equivalent to nine years’ worth of rent,” he said.

“We entered into a very engaging conversation with the tenants. I don’t know whether you have ever heard of a situation where a tenant is asked to vacate and then you get paid to leave. Most of the time, the tenants pay the landlord. In this case, we agreed that we are going to pay the tenant to leave.”

He added that the initial relocation offer was Ksh.30,000, but following negotiations, the amount was raised to Ksh.150,000. He said all 3,600 tenants signed consent forms to the agreement. 

PS Hinga responded to reports of several Makongeni residents who revealed the challenges of starting over in a new place.

The majority of the families complained that the government was disrupting their lives as they had resided in the area for decades. 

Despite these concerns, the government maintains that the redevelopment plan offers residents the first opportunity to purchase units in the Affordable Housing scheme once completed.

The really stupid thing here is the government telling these now homeless people that they can just wait until the houses are built where their grabbed houses were and they can come back and buy houses in the affordable housing plan of the government. It is one thing for the government to terrorize Kenyans with crimes like violent evictions but don’t insult them. People don’t like that. None of those evicted Makongeni residents will ever be able to buy new houses if any is built and the issue now for them is how to find somewhere to have a home and stay alive.

The first thing the government should have done with the huge real estate in Makongeni would have been to build a housing complex which would take a few acres of the land and house all the 3,600 residents move there and then all the rest of the land would be available for Affordable Housing and then build those and everybody is happy.

Why did the Ruto government not take that approach. It is because those poor Kenyans like the residents of Makongeni are of no relevance to their government and they could all die after the demolitions and William Ruto would even notice that.

It was a beehive of activity on Monday as residents of Makongeni Estate in Nairobi rushed to salvage their property. The residents had been given notice by the government to vacate the houses to pave the way for the affordable housing project. 

Several residents were seen trying their best to get their property out of the houses as bulldozers descended in the area to pull down the houses. Some were packing their property in pickups, handcarts and lorries as they moved out to have a fresh start.

What is happening in Makongeni against Kenyans is a crime against humanity by blowing peoples’ houses and sending them to homelessness and death in the streets of Nairobi. This kind of madness by the William Ruto government should never be allowed to go on unabated. It is times like this that the ODM although working with Ruto in some areas must stand firm and denounce what is going and their reps go to Makongeni to talk to the traumatized residents. I know it is by-election time but stuff like what Kenyans are enduring and seeing in Makongeni has to be stopped by all who love their country.

This is the time for massive protests by Kenyans and our respected Gen Z groups to take mass action and challenge the government to have a better plan for the now homeless residents of Makongeni. Kenya opposition won’t do that because now their only interest is getting that Mbeere North MP seat for Gachagua and a few MCA seats to look a little relevant in Kenya politics.

Here is the crime against humanity in Makongeni that Kenyans have to deal with now not later.

If we had a sensible government in Kenya today, the Makongeni situation presents a real opportunity to build a housing plan that accommodates everybody and makes life better for all. There is huge land in Makongeni. The colonial government just built huts there for the servants something they felt is how Africans need to live. It was 100 years ago, in the 1920s. The colonial government was building urban huts for African workers.

Today, if all that land is used properly, all the those who live there now can be housed in a housing complex that would take a very small portion of the land. And those houses would be allocated to the present people who live there in an affordable financial arrangement.

The rest of that huge real estate can then be used as public land in which the Kenya government can invest in housing plus any other economic development projects. Why can’t we do that. Because we have a government that doesn’t care about the Kenyan people at all.

Just when Kenyans thought they already heard the worst lies from the government with regard to the Makongeni demolition of peoples’ houses, it keeps coming. For sure this people up there can spare Kenyans from a little embarrassment, just by keeping quiet.

Now the government is promising to give those people becoming homeless after being thrown out of Makongeni the first jobs in construction of the new buildings in Makongeni. What construction jobs is the government going to give those folks from Makongeni? Does the government even have an idea where the evictees are going to live so they can come to work in construction in Makongeni? Are those evictees going to be trained in construction work?

When you don’t know what you are doing to the country as leaders, the best thing is not to talk about it. And that is more important if you are talking to a population of 40 plus million people in Kenya.

Here we go with government directives today!

Makongeni eviction victims to get first jobs in new housing projects

Speaking to a local TV station on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, Hinga went on to state that the government has already reached out to affected families and put clear measures in place to ensure they benefit directly from the massive construction works.

“The people who relocated from Makongeni, every household, we have sent out the information, and we want them to nominate a person from each household,” Hinga explained.

He added that the nominated individuals will not just compete like ordinary applicants.

“They are going to get the first right to be employed because these are massive contracts and they are going to require a lot of labour, both skilled and unskilled,” Hinga has said.

He is positioning the project as both a housing and employment lifeline.

However, the PS also addressed concerns over housing allocation, particularly regarding finished units in Mukuru.

“The finished units that we have are in Mukuru, and we already have a problem to eradicate Mukuru slum systematically,” Hinga noted.

Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada