102-year-old granny left homeless after private developer demolishes house

A 102-year-old granny living at Miti Moja area in Nakuru County was left homeless after her house was demolished by a private developer following a land dispute.

Wangari Nyokabi, a mother of six and a grandmother, was forcefully evicted from her 5-acre piece of land that she has been living in for the last 33 years and accused the private developer, Alice Chepng’etich, of forging the title deed to the land.

The granny said that she legally acquired the land in 1983 after being resettled by the government and later given a title deed, adding that she was shocked by the turn of events.

Nyokabi, who decided to seek justice through the courts, said that she has been frustrated both emotionally and financially in attending court summonses in a legal battle that has dragged on for over five years.

On Friday, Nyokabi claims a group of armed police officers came to her home with a court order for her eviction and threw out her personal belongings before demolishing her mud-walled house.

Irate neighbors together with the family members put up a polythene hovel where the granny spent the night.

According to her daughter Marion Nyokabi, they were harassed by police officers who threatened to use excessive force in throwing out the granny.

Marion added that the court decision to evict her mother was compromised and accused the private developer of working hand in hand with the Nakuru Land Registrar’s office to obtain a fake title of the land.

This comes weeks after a senior official at the National Lands Commission in Nakuru was arrested and charged in court for soliciting bribes in allocations of double land title deeds within the county.

Nakuru-based activist Moses Mwangi, who provided iron sheets to the distraught granny, accused the land commission of bias and harassing the vulnerable in society for their own personal interests.

The residents called on the National Land Commission chairman Muhammad Swazuri to take up the matter and help protect the rights of the elderly in the county.

By Simon Ngure