Wangui Mwangi Theuri: "In which Kenya will we stay?"

Before the post-election violence in Kenya in January and February 2008, Wangui Mwangi Theuri was a landlady in a city slum, but she is now displaced, living in a tent at the Mathare chief's camp in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Prospects for her return to Mathare, where she owned 14 rooms - which were destroyed - are bleak after "rich" people took over her land. She spoke to IRIN on 21 July:

"I was a landlady in Mathare 3C area where I lived with my children and grandchildren. My mother was allocated the plot during [President Jomo] Kenyatta's days because she was in a singing group that used to entertain the president.

"I met my husband there and we had made a home there; all my children have grown up in that plot, some have married and had children. I gave some of my children the rooms but I was letting out the majority of the rooms in order to sustain my family.

"The violence erupted soon after I buried one of my children who had died of HIV/AIDS together with her spouse. Now I am taking care of seven orphaned grandchildren as well as the other grandchildren.

"I think the rich people who target our plots took advantage of the post-election violence to ensure that my rooms were completely destroyed. I think they hired thugs to take away the iron sheets I used to build the walls of some of the rooms. I heard that these building materials were sold off in the night.

"We fled to the Moi Airbase [army facility] nearby, leaving all we owned in those rooms; they took everything, my cupboards, television sets and other household goods. I just made sure that my family was safe. We were later transferred to the chief's camp here and it has been months since then.

"I have made attempts to return to the plot but these rich people are so powerful, they just send gangs to intimidate us and take away whatever building material we try to take to the site. We [a group of 42 displaced slum landlords] have held talks with the chief and the district officer [DO] about our plight. We were asked to list all the displaced landlords and we have submitted the names to the DO, who is due to give us feedback soon. We are just waiting; we don't know whether the outcome will be favourable to us or to the cartel of rich people out to cheat us of our land.

"In the meantime, I remain in this tent, trying to keep warm in this cold and looking after several grandchildren to ensure they don't catch cold. I keep asking myself, in which Kenya will we stay? These rich people have conspired to make our lives hell, I feel defeated, and where will we go if these people make it impossible for us to return home?

"You know in slum areas there are no title deeds as most of the land is owned by government, but surely having lived and owned rooms in a plot for more than three decades, don't I qualify to own it?

"I have been sleeping in this cold tent for seven months now, what future do I have?"

js/mw