Smelly Christmas: Nairobi landlord uses human waste to evict tenants

Tenants in an estate in Lang’ata, Nairobi had what is arguably one of the smelliest Christmas holidays ever.

Their landlord, who seemed to be on a vengeance mission, allegedly hired goons to pour raw sewage in one of their houses in a bid to evict them from his premises. This was after several other measures to force the tenants out of Ocean Park Apartment had failed.

Prior to the sewage debacle, the landlord, Joseph Kagwatha, had disconnected water and electricity supply and also denied the tenants garbage collection, security and parking services. All this, stemming from a legal dispute that saw the tenants secure a court order barring him from increasing the rent from Ksh.25,000 to Ksh.30,000.

The human waste was dumped on Sunday, Christmas Eve, at around 7.30pm in the ground floor house of one of the vocal tenants opposing the increased rent. When a Citizen Digital visited the apartment on Tuesday, the stench from the waste was still emanating from the house.

In November, the landlord, through Pearl River Agencies, wrote to the 40 tenants informing them of the raise in rent. Some residents opposed the the new rates, prompting the owner to order them to vacate. They declined, and a conflict began with the landlord resorting to denying the occupants the essential services.

In protest, the tenants moved to the Rent Restriction Tribunal on December 18, and the matter was certified as urgent with the court directing the landlord to restore all the facilities including water and electricity supply, garbage collection, security and parking services.

The landlord and the agent were also restrained from “evicting, harassing the tenants and/or in any other manner interfering with their tenancies” pending the hearing of the case.

The tribunal further directed that the tenants continue paying rent as usual.

However, since the landlord was served with the tribunal’s order, tenants say he has has been harassing and intimidating them with some opting to vacate.

Langata OCS Derrick Nyagah said they are investigating the matter.