Police seize 150 pieces of detonators in Kenya

By Albert Nyakundi

Police in Kasarani,Nairobi  are looking for a woman suspected to be behind 150 pieces of detonators recovered in Githurai 45 near the Equity bank lastweek. A kiosk operator who requested for anonymity told the police that a middle-aged woman walked into her kiosk and requested to keep her handbag for safe custody so that she could go for a short call. She was suspicious when the woman took so long to come for the handbag.''I decided to open it and found strange contents in a woman's handbag.'' She said. Kasarani police boss Augustine Thumbi handed the detonators to bomb experts. Meanwhile, tenants in Githurai have protested a move by landlords to increase rental fees saying it is not justified.''They are selfish and we do not get value for our money.Our plot is dirty with poor sanitation yet we are to pay extra Sh.400 starting this October.'' Said a protestor. Most property owners threatened to hike rent charges after the government directed that landlords

And a self help group in Kasarani's Marurui village are up in arms against an eviction letter allegedly from the Nairobi city council. Gathara selfhelp group claims ownership of a 7 acre slum known as Jua kali. The slum has 490 structures with about 6000 squatters who call it home since 1989.The group’s vice chairman Thomas Wanderi said the parcel of land that stretches from the southern by pass to Gathara-ini river was used as a foot path by a white-settler coffee farmer for taking his animals to drink water at the river. ''The land was not only a foot path but it was a boundary between two coffee farms owned by two whites.'' Said Wanderi. The occupants at the slum were labourers in the farms who were allegedly settled there by the former area legislature for the then Mathare constituency Andrew Kimani Ngumba. The residents are accusing seven individuals among them a surveyor from the neighbouring Thome estate of a plot to forcefully evict them using fake documents.''The Nairobi city council has dismissed enforcement notice serial number 10195 dated 16^th August 2012need to pay taxes.