Umoja 2 Residents Plead With Karen Nyamu Not To Demolish Stalls In Her Father's Land

• Nominated senator Karen Nyamu is running after developers alleged to have illegally put up structures on her father's land
• She camped in Nairobi's Umoja 2 Estate where a tract belonging to her father hosts stalls owned by a group of youth traders
• The lawmaker contemplates flattening the stalls, but the young traders there would not give her easy time, pleading with her to reconsider the move

Nairobi - A section of traders in Umoja 2 were scared by nominated senator Karen Nyamu's impromptu appearance at the area on Friday, December 22.

Their stalls are said to be sitting on a tract owned by the lawmaker's father.

According to the senator, the structures were put up on the land illegally and thus she was looking forward to having them demolished.

The young traders there would however plead with her to reconsider her move.

They claimed to have come together and secured a loan with which they acquired the land.

"We're 35 youths in Umoja 2 Estate. We do table banking. Recently we managed to secure some loan to develop a place we had vibandas before and constructed this modern shops steel mode. The place is next to Senator Karen Nyamu's building," one of them confided in Cyprian Nyakundi, a blogger.

The senator heard their pleas and offered to engage them to realise an amicable solution.

Nyamu is is on record taking pride in her father to whom she attributes her successes.

"My dad taught me to be very hardworking, and with that, I learned that things don’t just happen. You have to take steps,” she said in a past interview.

Eleswhere, residents of Milimani Estate in Kakamega were left to count losses after the government demolished their houses to build affordable units.

The demolition happened on Tuesday, November 28, even as the High Court declared the Housing Levy introduced under the Finance Act 2023 unconstitutional.

The court asserted that the housing levy is discriminatory and unfair, creating distinctions between the formal and informal sectors.

Why Milimani Estate houses were demolished

The owners claimed they were not served with a notice to vacate the premises.

They decried losing property worth millions of shillings when the bulldozers started demolishing the houses, paving the way for passersby to break in and loot.

Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) condemned the exercise questioning President William Ruto's scheme that earmarks Kakamega town's elevation to city status.

"It is important to issue people a notice to vacate, not just wake up and start the demolition of their houses. This is not fair, we also want the town to be elevated to a city status, but this is not how it is done," said a resident.