CLOSED: Kenya: Community at risk of Eviction

The Deep Sea settlement, a Nairobi slum, is home to around 10,000 people who live under who live under threat of forced eviction as private companies lay claim to the land they occupy.

In 2005 contractors, with police support, evicted hundreds of families in the middle of the night and demolished their homes without prior notice. Although the Kenyan high court later ruled that the house demolitions were illegal, this has not stopped periodic eviction attempts. Since Amnesty supporters first wrote to the community in 2008, residents report that no further evictions have taken place.

As the threat of eviction remains, the community feel it is important to keep the pressure and continue sending cards until protection against forced evictions and a comprehensive upgrading programme which provides affordable and decent housing on existing sites is in place.

Background information

The Deep Sea settlement has grown up since Kenyan independence in 1963. People moving to the capital to look for work set up a few small dwellings on untitled forest land and the settlement rapidly became home to an estimated 7,000 people.

Under Kenyan law, the residents should have the right to obtain legal title over the land after living there for 12 years. However, it recently came to light that a private company had acquired title to the land. Many in the community suspect that the company was formed by a group of the settlement’s affluent neighbours, who wish to get rid of Deep Sea and profit from the prime real estate it lies on.

In 2005 a private firm – with police support – moved into the settlement with bulldozers in the middle of the night and began evicting hundreds of people without notice, demolishing their houses. Media attention halted the evictions, but the residents who had lost their homes had to move in with neighbours and family, and many still lack homes of their own.

The Kenyan High Court ruled that the evictions were illegal because no court order had been issued. However, the ruling did not stop further evictions taking place.

Community leaders who have attempted to organise against the evictions have been targeted for eviction and harassed by the authorities, and some have had their houses set on fire. Residents, including children and the elderly, have been tear-gassed during evictions and protesters at a recent peaceful demonstration were beaten.

The fear of eviction is not the only problem the Deep Sea residents face. The settlement has no electricity, hardly any fresh water and no refuse collection. Roads are non-existent. Worst of all, it has no sewage system: effluent flows through the settlement and pollutes the water supply used for washing.

Most houses are made of scrap metal, canvas and plastic and many are not water- proof. Health problems are rife. Community members suffer from waterborne illnesses such as hepatitis A, cholera and diarrhoea, as well as HIV/AIDS and malnutrition. The church-run health centre and infant school in the settlement are not adequate for the population.

Local non-governmental organisations are calling for a moratorium on forced evictions for the Deep Sea settlement, coupled with a government programme of ‘comprehensive upgrading’ to provide affordable and decent housing by improving existing sites.

More on poverty and human rights

The Deep Sea settlement, a Nairobi slum, is home to around 10,000 people who live under who live under threat of forced eviction as private companies lay claim to the land they occupy.

In 2005 contractors, with police support, evicted hundreds of families in the middle of the night and demolished their homes without prior notice. Although the Kenyan high court later ruled that the house demolitions were illegal, this has not stopped periodic eviction attempts. Since Amnesty supporters first wrote to the community in 2008, residents report that no further evictions have taken place.

As the threat of eviction remains, the community feel it is important to keep the pressure and continue sending cards until protection against forced evictions and a comprehensive upgrading programme which provides affordable and decent housing on existing sites is in place.

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