Anti-riot police officers were deployed to quell riots in Athi River on Thursday, June 22, after protesters blocked a section of Mombasa Road.
The demonstrators were aggrieved after their houses were demolished on Tuesday night, June 20, forcing them out of their beds to brave the cold weather.
Residents blamed police officers who supervised the demolition, claiming they acted contrary to the law as they lacked relevant documents supporting the exercise.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, one of the witnesses, however, alleged that the protesters were squatting on government land, prompting the forceful eviction.
“The government owns the land through East African Portland Cement (EAPC) and on Tuesday, they moved to repossess it, thus irking the residents,” he explained.
Upon seeing they would not be allowed back on the land, the residents started rioting and burning tires on the busy Mombasa-Nairobi highway.
Disruption of traffic and chaotic scenes forced the government to deploy police officers to quell the demos.
The police officers, however, met an unrelenting angry crowd and were forced to lob teargas canisters to disperse them.
While the eviction was reportedly a legal operation by the government, some protesters read a sinister move.
“There is a powerful individual who wants to grab the land and he is hiding behind the government evictions,” one of the protesters complained.
On November 2022, Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti and Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka threatened to lead demonstrations should the squatters be evicted from the region, arguing that it was ancestral land.
Ndeti and Kalonzo responded to Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria, who threatened to evict the squatters who allegedly grabbed the land owned by East African Portland Cement.
Kalonzo and Wavinya have yet to issue a statement on the Thursday, June 22 protests.
