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| Residents carry their households after the houses they were living in were at Nairobi Railway Club were demolished on February 20, 2019.PHOTO | SILA KIPLAGAT | NATION MEDIA GROUP |
A land management tussle pitting more than 9,000 pensioners of the Kenya Railways Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme (KRSRBS) and the Nairobi Railway Club has escalated leading to the demolition of houses and business premises.
Over 20 families that lived within the Railway Club premises were astonished when a group of 50 youths descended on their houses at dawn breaking down their doors and throwing out belongings.
The residents told the Nation they had not been given a vacation notice and in the the chaos they lost valuable property and even cash.
“I have lost a laptop and Sh12, 000 yet to this point I don’t know what is happening,” Mr Carilus Alwala said.
Mr Alwala said the youths did not spare children either and threw them out in the cold.
RENT ROW
The centre of controversy is the 18-acre land that Nairobi Railways Club sits on and which was given to the retirees by Kenya Railways after it reneged on their pensions.
The land, they said, is just among several other parcels that were given to them to either sell or lease out to pay themselves.
But the pensioners claim that over the last four years the businesses’ revenues have not been reaching them, accusing unnamed persons of lining up their pockets instead.
“Some people in the club took the money as if it is theirs, they do not remit to us. We do not have a problem with the tenants. But if the money does not get to us there is no other thing we can do,” Mr Johnson Miano, the retirees chairman told Nation.
CASE PENDING
Initially, the club was charged with collecting the revenues on behalf of the pensioners and remitting to their scheme but after the two parties were entangled in a legal battle, the court ordered tenants to pay dues to a joint account until the matter, which is still in court, is heard and determined.
“The court wanted tenants to regularise their businesses with the scheme so that they pay to the scheme directly. However, the tenants did not obey and so the court ordered for the demolition,” Mr Miano said.
He said the pensioners have been losing over Sh2 million in revenues every month.
‘NEW CONTRACTS’
But the club’s General Manager Eliphas Wesangula faulted the move to demolish property, claiming the court order on which the action was based had been overtaken by events.
“The club was not given a copy of the orders that have allowed these people to do this intensive destruction. What they have done today is illegal, pulling down structures, closing gates for people who wanted to access the premises. It has a cost,” said Mr Wesangula.
As the tussle rages on, the tenants many of them staff of the Railway Club, have been rendered homeless.
“I have lived here for over 20 years then today, all of a sudden, I have been ambushed…All I can see is darkness. I do not know the way forward,” Ms Grace Lusomo said.
The pensioners want “tenants who are willing to continue with [their] businesses to enter into a contract” with them.