Property owners should be forced to ‘divert rivers’ instead of facing demolition, Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu has said.
If your house is next to a river, let the government tell you to carter for ‘diverting the river’ but not demolishing your property,” Waititu said in a video that has gone viral.
He said he will not support the ongoing destructions on people’s property.
“Kubomoa nyumba haitasaidia..this is loosely translated to mean…destruction of the house will not give us a solution,” Waititu said.
The governor said NEMA and Nairobi county government should look for alternative ways instead of bringing down property worth billions of shillings.
The National Environment Management Authority has in the recent past been demolishing multi-billion shillings property on riparian reserve.
Some of those that have been brought down include Southend Mall on Lang’ata Road and Ukay Centre in Westlands.
Speaking during a church service on Sunday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said he will not relent in the fight against impunity and corruption.
“I have been receiving many calls that you know.. how can you just watch as these destructions go on? You must stop it!.. and I say to them, It is difficult to stop, not because we love to destroy, but we must fight impunity,” he said.
“… because if we fail we will not achieve our dreams and a time has come for us to fight impunity.”
Last week, President Uhuru directed those government officials who approved construction of buildings on riparian land be arrested and prosecuted.
Uhuru said the government will continue demolishing buildings until the desired outcome is achieved.
“We will continue demolishing properties constructed on riparian lands, equally punish officials who made approvals for those properties,” he said.
“We shall go after all those who issued the illegal permits, be they County or National Government officials. All those who gave these permits will be prosecuted.”
