South B residents warn against interference in contested market land
Nairobi South B residents have called on politicians and police to refrain from interfering with matters over the disputed market land. https://rb.gy/k9qyre
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00:00 On the 10th of August, 2023, I want to remind you because you have been part of this process.
00:07 You remember the residents of South B filed a petition, which I presented on their behalf.
00:15 It's by the law.
00:17 The petition was definitely speaking about land grabbing in South B.
00:24 The land in question is located at the South B shopping centre, just right opposite the mosque.
00:36 One of the reasons why I want to address the media today is because the land in question has now attracted a lot of issues.
00:51 I'm here to remind those people that the Constitution of Kenya 2010, Article 29, which speaks about freedom and security of the person,
01:05 and allow me to say that in this country, everybody has a right and freedom and security.
01:14 Everybody has the right of freedom and security of the person, which includes the right not to be subjected to any form of violence from either public or private sources.
01:28 Allow me to take you to the genesis of this matter, because after we presented the petition together with the committee members on the 10th of August, 2023,
01:40 we invited the CC Lance, S. Jimwangi, who appeared before the committee and gave his submissions.
01:49 S. Jimwangi, who is the CC, confirmed to the committee that the land belongs to the public.
01:57 In this petition, some issues came up.
02:02 The land definitely measures 0.7131 acres, just slightly below an acre, and it's an open space even up to now.
02:13 And the land was set aside by the former county council for public commercial use, which they say was a market and shops.
02:25 On the 4th of December, 2018, the documents presented showed that the land was transferred to John Mashua Waithaka,
02:38 and the county government of Nairobi has not, even up to this day, issued any approvals for any construction to take place on the land.
02:49 When these documents were presented, three things came up. One was the issue to do with how an instrument of transfer is executed.
03:03 And if you look at the committee observations for the day, an instrument of transfer signed between the city-county of Nairobi and one John Mashua Waithaka,
03:15 the document dated to June 2014, for a consideration of one million by way of stat premium, the instrument bears the seal of the city council signed by the mayor.
03:32 In 2014, we had already passed the 2010 constitution, so therefore there was no existence of the mayor.
03:40 So this document, according to John Mashua Waithaka, was signed by the mayor, which in 2014 did not exist.
03:49 The issue that came up was that the allotment letter was issued to two different entities.
03:57 That is the Margo Investment and John Mashua Waithaka, which raises further questions.
04:03 The bad issue was that the reference number. It had two different reference numbers, according to the committee observations.
04:12 I want to remind you that the recommendations of the committee were that the county executive are to revoke any title deed that bears any individual's name in this Nairobi,
04:27 and that the county government of Nairobi is supposed to protect the public land.
04:34 Along the way, because I don't want to discuss matters in court, our lawyers moved to court and they filed a preliminary objection on this matter,
04:46 because the peculiar position of the judges is that a magistrate court cannot hear a matter of a land with a value below 20 million.
05:01 When I look at the pardons that have been given by the chief valuer, it is valued at 200 million shillings.
05:10 So no magistrate should sit on this case. So we filed a preliminary objection on this matter, saying that the magistrate court does not have the jurisdiction to listen to this matter,
05:23 because the value is below the amount that the magistrates are supposed to listen.
05:29 And because of that, I do not want to discuss content of issues that are in court.
05:39 My main issue is about people who have come together, including former members of parliament in this county,
05:48 who are planning our youth to come and cause chaos, cause violence.
05:55 This morning there was one meeting that was held at Vumila House in South B, trying to organize our young people, rather than putting them into good use.
06:06 I personally called the regional commander this morning, Nairobi, and I alerted him about the issue.
06:14 I also called the DIG, assistant DIG, and I also alerted him about the issue.
06:20 Being a leader of Nairobi South, I want to assure you that I am not going to allow people who go by the name like Grabas to bring violence, to cause violence, to cause mayhem in Nairobi South.
06:36 And therefore I am calling upon the police protocols led by the IG Kome to withdraw any police officer who is manning that place.
06:52 I have a letter from the county government of Nairobi confirming that this land belongs to the public.
07:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]