This archive report was first published on 10 July 2019.
On July 10, 2019, the County Assembly Planning and Land Committee made a landmark ruling in favor of Silas Njeru and Florence Gatari Njeru, ordering Nairobi County government to pay KSh 60 million for demolishing their property in Kariobangi South without notice.
The Committee found that City Hall had indeed approved construction on the said plots and that the owners, Silas Njeru and Florence Gatari Njeru, had paid land rates until 2017.
According to the Committee's findings, the defunct Nairobi City Council had allocated the plots to the Njeru family in January 2002 under the KCC village formalisation project.
The couple had erected a four-storey building on one of the plots and added a hardware and car wash, all of which were approved by the city council.
However, the property was controversially brought down in March 2018 to pave the way for a fire station, despite documents showing that the owners had acquired their plots regularly.
The Committee's ruling was a significant victory for the couple, who had petitioned the county assembly on May 2, 2018, in their attempts to repossess the plots from City Hall.
