Southend mall along Lang’ata Road demolished by NEMA. Workers and owners of Southend Mall on Langata road have suffered a blow after bulldozers descended on the Sh1 billion mall on Wednesday morning. The mall that stands upon Mutuini-Ngong River on Langata Road is owned by former Bobasi MP Stephen Manoti.
But fresh details have now emerged that in fact the mall was earmarked for destruction in 2016 but Manoti moved to court to stop the demolition. The former lawmaker had been given 14 days to bring it down or get assistance from City hall.
08:47 Mheshimiwa had been told to demolish his Southend Mall along Langata Road on May, 2016 but then seeing himself untouchable, today that D day came for demolition! pic.twitter.com/kDCYxsscaR via @kibetp
— Ma3Route (@Ma3Route) August 8, 2018
The building has been blamed for flooding in Nairobi West, South C and the entire Langata area.
Residents and environmentalists complained that the five storey building obstructed the flow of Mutuin-Ngong river causing flooding during the rainy season.
Former Nairobi County Housing Executive Christopher Khaemba said that Stephen Manoti moved to court after being served with the demolition notice two years ago and restrained the County from interfering with the building.
The demolitions begun on Monday by a multi-agency taskforce comprising of NEMA, KURA and Nairobi County Government and are aimed at reclaiming the grabbed wetlands in Nairobi.
There is a heavy police presence at the scene to ensure crowds do not disrupt the exercise and traffic on Langata and Mbagathi Road is not disrupted. On Monday, a Java House outlet and Shell Fuel station in Kileleshwa, Nairobi were brought down in a move to reclaim riparian land in Nairobi.
NEMA said efforts to bring down illegal structures in Nairobi will continue especially on buildings located on river valleys. The government agencies said that it had issued a three month-notice and another seven-day notification to the tenants to vacate but they did not heed the orders.
Tenants at the buildings located along Arboretum Drive, however, said they were not given ample time to move and faulted the demolition for being inhumane.