{"id":23208,"date":"2026-01-14T16:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/23208\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:06:19","slug":"kenya-railways-explains-demolition-of-wamatangis-businesses-near-nyayo-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/23208\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya Railways explains demolition of Wamatangi\u2019s businesses near Nyayo Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brian<\/a> By
\n
\n Brian Kimani
\n <\/a>
\n Published on: January 14, 2026 05:54 (EAT)
\n \"Kenya <\/p>\n

Bulldozers demolished several properties, including a restaurant and car wash belonging to Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi, as well as other businesses.<\/p>\n

\"Vocalize <\/p>\n

Audio By Vocalize<\/p>\n

The Kenya Railways Corporation has defended the demolition of
\nbusinesses near Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi, saying the move is part of a land
\nrepossession process aimed at easing transport ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of
\nNations (AFCON) tournament.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, bulldozers demolished several properties<\/a>,
\nincluding a restaurant and car wash belonging to Kiambu Governor Kimani
\nWamatangi, as well as other businesses such as liquor outlets and beauty
\nsalons, in an operation supervised by security officers who patrolled the area.<\/p>\n

In a subsequent statement released on Wednesday, the State
\ncorporation revealed plans to construct a railway station adjacent to Nyayo National
\nStadium and a railway spur line from the Nairobi Central station through Nyayo
\nNational Stadium area, Kibera, to Talanta Sports City Stadium to ease movement
\nduring the AFCON tournament.<\/p>\n

The corporation stated that all encroachers of the said land
\nwere issued with notices in advance to vacate the railway corridor to pave way
\nfor the construction of the station and spur line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Kenya Railways is in the process of evicting all
\nencroachers as we repossess all the land that has been identified for the above
\nmentioned development,” read part of the statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Therefore, take note that any illegal
\nstructures\/property found on the corridor will be demolished and\/or removed
\nwithout further notice and at the encroacher’s risk and cost.”<\/p>\n

Following the demolition, Wamatangi visited the site and
\ntermed the move as \u201cpolitical persecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I started here in 1994 washing cars. Then I started
\nselling cars. I have been here for years. When I took this premise, I took a
\n65-year lease for this property from Kenya Railways. I have been faithfully
\npaying the fees for all those years,” he stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Flanked by religious leaders, he questioned why Kenya Railways
\ndemolished the property despite him possessing a court order.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reports indicate that Wamatangi had filed a petition at the
\nMilimani Commercial Magistrates\u2019 Courts before the demolition, claiming the
\nproperty had been leased from Kenya Railways for more than two decades.<\/p>\n

He, however, noted that officers acting on behalf of Kenya
\nRailways visited the premises on December 17, 2025, and threatened to evict him
\nwithout providing a written notice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the petition, Wamatangi had sought an order to stop the
\nplanned demolition.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Brian Kimani Published on: January 14, 2026 05:54 (EAT) Bulldozers demolished several properties, including a restaurant and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[411,14273,80,14272,14301,14300],"class_list":{"0":"post-23208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-afcon","9":"tag-demolition","10":"tag-kenya","11":"tag-kenya-railways","12":"tag-kimani-wamatangi","13":"tag-nyayo-stadium"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}