Update Wednesday, January 24: Kenyan comedian Eric Omondi helped the mother and her children after a landlord removed the house roof for failing to pay rent arrears amounting to Ksh6000.
Through a fundraising drive organised on Wednesday, the team raised Ksh625,000, which he used to rent a new house for the mother and her children, and further enrolled the children on a new school.
“We moved her to a new house and paid one year's rent. We took the children to a new school, and we have opened an account for her and deposited 300K which she can only access once she has a business plan,” Eric Omondi noted.
A landlord in the Nairobi Mathare area was accused of removing a tenant’s roof after she failed to raise Ksh6,000 to offset rent arrears.
In a video posted by content creator, Priscilla wa Imani, on her online pages, the embattled tenant was recorded serving food to her kids inside a house without a roof.
The area leader was said to have requested the influencer to intervene and rescue the children from sleeping in the cold.
Priscilla highlighted that the mother was living in abject poverty, as the children sometimes slept hungry.
So dire was her situation that she couldn’t even afford tea leaves, forcing her offspring to drink hot water and sugar for breakfast.
Owing to her miserable state of living, the mother resorted to always excluding herself from eating the little food she acquired daily.
“We need to talk to the landlord and sort this issue, but we can’t reach him."
“With this Nairobi weather, it might rain any day. What will happen to the kids?” Priscilla sympathised while advocating against violence.
The video touched the hearts of many Kenyans, who promised to come to her aid once a pay bill number was set up and running.
“Let’s support this lady. My company and I are in. Tomorrow early in the morning we start contributions,” a travel agency owner commented.
According to the Rent Restrictions Act in the Kenyan Constitution, a landlord is required to give tenants at least 30 days’ notice before evicting them from their premises and further ensure the premises are in good condition.
Tenants must also issue a notice before they relocate depending on the lease agreements signed.
“In the absence of any provision to the contrary in the contract of tenancy, for this Act, it shall be deemed to be the obligation of the landlord of any premises to maintain and keep the premises in a state of good structural repair and in a condition suitable for human habitation,” the Act reads.
