Otiende, Amalemba Estates tenants block County Government eviction plan

Kakamega

Wednesday August 2, 2023

KNA by George Kaiga

Tenants of the Otiende and Amalemba estates in Kakamega town have moved to the High to bar the Kakamega County Government from evicting them from the government-owned houses.

The tenants filed a constitutional petition before the Bungoma Environment and Land Court Judge Enock. C. Cherono on Thursday seeking orders to stop the county government from interfering with their tenancy.

Through M/S Amasakha & Company Advocates, the tenants want the Court to issue an order prohibiting the county government from interfering with the quiet enjoyment of their tenancy in respect of the two housing schemes.

Martin Ochieng and Augustine Mutala have filed the suit, both as individual tenants and on behalf of Otiende and Amalemba housing scheme estates respectively. This comes hot on the heels of a decision by the County Government asking the tenants to vacate the houses by July 31, 2023, or face eviction, a decision they contend is unfair.

In their prayers, they also want the Court to make a declaration that their fundamental rights and freedoms to the right to access affordable housing and sanitation as well as their right to fair administrative action and access to information have been breached by violating Article 10,21(2), 27, 35, 40, 47 of the constitution.

In the alternative, the tenants want the Court to direct the county government to compensate and give them alternative housing provision.

Last Monday, Justice Cherono certified the matter as urgent and directed the applicants to serve the respondents within three days. The Judge also directed the county government to file its responses within 14 days after which the applicants will file their responses and supplementary submissions.

Justice Cherono fixed the petition for mention of the case on September 12, 2023.

The petition says that the vacate notices issued to the tenants by the county government asking them to leave the houses by July 31 or be evicted contravenes the national policy on housing which provides for progressive provision of accessible and adequate housing which is the policy upon which houses in the two schemes were allocated to the tenants.

“The tenants were not involved at all prior to the said county executive committee decision of April 4, 2023 that resolved that the houses be left for occupation by county staff, contrary to Article 10 of the constitution which provides for public participation,” the petition reads in part.

“The notices were given despite the county having failed to provide recreational facilities and services as envisaged under the Housing Act and in further contravention of Article 43(b) of constitution in regard to the provision of reasonable standards of sanitization,” it read.

The petition, filed on July 28, argues that the former municipal council of Kakamega was, among other things, expected to provide roads, drains, open spaces, places of worship, places of recreation, facilities for social welfare and trading but failed to do so.

The petition further says the decision to ask the tenants to vacate the houses by July 31 was unfair because the respondent has not provided them with alternative housing, despite the fact that they have been in occupation of the units for decades.

The tenants argue that they have been repairing the houses they occupy using their own money and have family members and school going children who will be disrupted by the abrupt eviction notice.

The petitioners, Ochieng and Mutala say in their supporting affidavit that the vacate notices issued to them by the county on May 2, 2023 asking them to hand over vacant houses by July 31 or risk being evicted are illegal and in contravention of their fundamental rights and freedoms.

The two said that the county government did not involve them before making the decision to have them vacate the houses whereas the constitution provides for public participation.

They argue that members of the Otiende Estate Site and Service Scheme and Amalemba Rentals Site and Service Scheme applied for and were allocated houses from the dwellings constructed by the former Local Authority through financing by the National Housing Corporation (NHC).

They said that the allocation was done on the understanding that it was to be followed by a lease agreement with an option to purchase. They said that the county government has declined to give them the lease agreement and tenant purchase agreement in terms of the original housing policy to date.

The applicants said that they wrote to the county government requesting for information pertaining their tenancy of the contested houses but the county is yet to respond to their letter.

Ochieng said that the two schemes were established to provide affordable and decent housing for residents of Kakamega town in line with the government policy then and now in consonance with article 43 of the constitution.

“My family and I have been tenants of the Otiende Estate for over 30 years and our legitimate expectation was to stay in the house for our lifetime as we are now of age,” said Ochieng.

He said that house No 247 was allocated to his late father in 1976 and he took over in 1998. “We have dutifully paid the rent fixed since acquisition to date,” he added.

Courtesy ; K. N. A