Lawyer and Amnesty Kenya Chair Renee Ngamau has run herself into trouble following her consistent war against planned grabbing of a public land in Jamhuri Estate Phase 1.
According to her a troop of 11 armed officers raised her house on Monday night following complaints she had made to the chief that an illegal drilling was happening in the estate. In what could be perhaps aimed at intimidating her for frustrating the construction, she was picked up and taken to Jamhuri Police and then Kilimani.
Residents protest the grabbing of public land and they get arrested while the land grabbers goes free. I am currently under arrest for protesting the grabbing of land. #GoodKindOfTrouble #EveryOneShouldBeAnActivist @AmnestyKenya @irunguhoughton
— Renée Ngamau (@reneengamau) September 14, 2020
So it would appear that the charge is malicious damage of the tanks illegally built in the children’s playground. Laughable. #CorruptionBitesBack #LandgrabbersParadise #KimaniGrabsLand
— Renée Ngamau (@reneengamau) September 14, 2020
The whole saga dates back to 2019 as you’ll get the details below and it has been marred with controversies and threats that Renee said they’ve reported with no end of it seen. The masterminds of the alleged grabbing are from big family.
I am to present myself tomorrow Tuesday15 September 2020 Kibera courts 8am. Charge malicious damage to private property built on public land. The billionaire’s borehole brother gets to make good on his threat courtesy of @NPSOfficial_KE #landgrabberske #corruptionbitesback pic.twitter.com/hCRZ6CopqJ
— Renée Ngamau (@reneengamau) September 14, 2020
Background
Peek ‘N’ Peel proprietor Kimani Rugendo was last year put on the spot for allegedly grabbing public land in Jamhuri Estate Phase 1, that he used to establish private business.
Mr Rugendo was reported to be drilling a commercial water borehole within a residential area, as well as a staggering steel water tower on communal property.
At first, Mr Rugendo had applied and was granted a permit to sink a borehole for personal use on his plot which he successfully did.
However, he changed the purpose from personal to commercial use, something that he had not been authorised to do.
“The drilling has caused damage to the shared common walk, distress, noise and uncertainty as to the structural safety of the houses on the terraced properties,” said residents in several letters written to authorities.
The water is to be used in his factory which bottles water which he claims is from Mount Kenya and where he also packages Juices and bottled drinks for human consumption. No tests have been done to the water so far, which puts to risk million of people who buy his company’s products.
Residents say that the houses share sewer lines which are close to the drilling area, posing an even greater threat to health of consumers.
His company manufactures Pick ‘N’ Peel and Afia ready-to-drink juices, and carbonated variants of non-alcoholic malt drinks, including Plain Malt, Energy Malt, Lemon Malt and Orange Malt.
Some residents approached Mr Kimani’s agents on the ground about the possibility of the neighborhood drawing water from the borehole. Mr Kimani accepted to the request so long as enough people would sign in and a larger storage tank can be installed to serve the neighborhood and still leave capacity for his industrial use.
Some residents(32 in number) considered this as an answer to long standing prayers and signed in.
Accordingly, he purported to build a water tower on the public land behind the house in which he intends to store his water before sending it to the factory to be bottled and consumed by unsuspecting members of the public.
Despite the residents writing to several government agencies such as Commissioner of Lands, National Lands Commission, National Police Service, National Environment Management Authority and Water Resources Authority, nothing has been done since September 2019.
Rugendo currently has four boreholes in and outside Nairobi and none is for commercial sale of water.
Residents who tried to complain to the site managers were threatened with goons hired from Kibra.
“In a bid to assert power and silence dissenters on Wednesday 08 April, Mr. Irungu called a gang of over ten young men from nearby Kibra who physically threatened the residents. This is recorded at the police station under OB No: 10/08/04/2020 at 1600hrs,” said one of the residents.
Here are some complaints that have never been attended to since last year.
Kimani Rugendo is not new to controversies, he once had Standard journalist David Odongo arrested over unknown accusations after putting him on the front page of Nairobian.
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