On the evening of Wednesday, October 6, claims that Weston Hotel along the busy Lang'ata Road, which is linked to Deputy President William Ruto, was set for demolition, went viral online
It all started with a tweet from a Twitter account associated with Kapseret MP, Oscar Sudi, who claimed plans to begin the demolition of the hotel on the night of Wednesday were already in high gear.
To prove his claims, the MP accompanied his tweets with photos of a bulldozer bundled onto a carrier car suggesting that the demolition was primed to start in a short while.
"The Deep State are indeed cornered. They have today decided to express their fury by demolishing Weston Hotel," read Sudi's statement in part.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, a police officer attached to Lang'ata Police Station, under whose jurisdiction the hotel stands, noted that he was not aware of the demolition plans.
It is expected that regarding the demolition of an establishment as prominent as the hotel, police officers would be briefed to provide security during the exercise.
The hotel's management also issued a statement noting that its services were running normally and that its customers should disregard any contrary information.
"Following numerous comments and enquiries from concerned stakeholders, friends and customers, we would like to clarify and assure our esteemed guests and the general public that the hotel operations are running smoothly without any interruption. Any contrary information should be disregarded," read the statement in part.
A correspondent based in Lang'ata and who had showed up to cover the alleged demolition exercise, also revealed that the claims, which made rounds on social media, were not true.
After the tweet from the lawmaker, Kenyans quickly revealed that the bulldozer in question was parked along Lang'ata Road, just a few meters from Weston Hotel.
"Some intelligence news brains and calculations, demolishing Weston Hotel is direct campaigns to Ruto and Hustler Nation," stated Abdiaziz Abdullahi.
In July 2021, Ruto lodged a fresh legal application seeking to halt the demolition of the hotel which was found to have been irregularly built on public land.
At the time, Lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi, who represented Weston, wanted the case pushed to next year to allow his team to file for an appeal.
Weston, which sits on a 0.773 hectares piece of land opposite Wilson Airport, accused KCAA of defying orders from NLC to conclude negotiations on the land after which Ruto would compensate the airports agency.
NLC had asked KCAA to allow the DP to compensate it at the market rate. However, the aviation authority has insisted that it wants back its land - arguing that compensation would encourage further encroachment of public land.
