Erima settlers’ case dismissed

A human rights case filed by displaced settlers of Erima in 2014 has been dismissed by the National Court after a trial conducted showed no human rights were breached by NCDC during the eviction and demolition exercise.

In 2014, the National Capital District Commission issued three months’ notice to occupants of the land, some of whom had been living there for more than 30 years.

The notice required them to demolish the houses and other structures they had erected on the land, to make way for construction of a new highway.

While some took heed of the notice and moved, those who remained saw persons engaged by the National Capital District Commission (NCDC) enter the land on Thursday, 12 June 2014, and demolish all the buildings on it, thereby forcibly evicting the plaintiffs from the land.

Earlier in 2014, Simon Wama and other occupants of the land commenced legal proceedings against the NCDC and other defendants aimed at stopping the then proposed demolition of their houses.

They succeeded at first in obtaining a temporary injunction but it was dissolved and the demolition and eviction exercise of 12 June went ahead and was completed.

Wama and 42 others who resided there filed a case in the National Court against NCD Governor Powes Parkop, the NCDC Physical Planning Board, NCDC and Dekenai Construction.

They were seeking damages for breaches of human rights.  

They claimed the area was a wasteland, the demolition notices were defective, they had equitable interests in the land and, that they had been given inadequate notice to leave, and that their human rights were breached as they were denied the full protection of the law.

Wama and 28 others who gave evidence at the trial said they built permanent houses and established businesses, such as trade stores and mechanical workshops, on the land.

They said they had developed it since 1979 without opposition by the NCDC or other authorities. It was wasteland.

They acknowledge that on 18 February 2014 they were served with demolition notices issued by the NCD Physical Planning Board. But the notices were defective.

They said they had equitable interests in the land. They needed more than three or four months’ notice to vacate it.

After trial, Justice David Cannings ruled the plaintiffs were not denied the full protection of the law.

“They were in fact protected by the law. The National Court granted them an interim injunction, which forestalled the demolition exercise. The injunction, granted on 7 March 2014, was dissolved on 23 April 2014,” he said.

They did not establish that their rights were breached which resulted in the case’s dismissal.

Author: 
Sally Pokiton