This archive report was first published on 4 July 2020.
On a fateful night in July 2020, a group of men descended upon a rental house in Fedha estate, Nairobi, to evict a tenant who had fallen behind on her rent payments.
The eviction, captured on an amateur video, was a stark reminder of the economic hardships faced by many Kenyans during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the woman behind the camera, the tenant was being chased out of her home at an ungodly hour, leaving her with nowhere to go.
‘This woman is being chased out of her house at this time of the night, where will she go? They have taken her gas cooker and told her it will replace the rent arrears,’ the woman taking the video said, as she captured the tenant wailing.
The men, who were five in number, were seen carrying the tenant's belongings out of the house, an act that drew the ire of the tenant's neighbours.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had previously called on landlords to be tolerant of tenants struggling to pay rent due to the pandemic.
