Over 40 children from Zion Children’s Home spent their night in the cold after their landlord tossed them out over rent arrears.
Some of the children spent Saturday night out in the cold and rainy sky while others were lucky to receive accommodation from neighbours.
The landlord, in the company of goons armed with crude weapons, stormed the building and threw everything outside on Saturday morning.
The goons removed the windows and doors installed by the tenant, Simon Mwangi, a pastor who has been running the children’s home at Hunter’s in the sprawling Kasarani estate in Nairobi.
After tossing the children’s property outside they locked the compound’s gate.
But the children’s home founder, the pastor, told K24 Digital, that he does not have any rent arrear.
He said that the building owner approached him, saying that she wants to sell the property and demanded Sh10 million or else he vacates.
However, the landlord said that the pastor owes them Sh2 million in rent arrears, a claim Mwangi denies.
Mwangi now is seeking help from wellwishers to secure another home for the children or some respite from authorities before the landlord can be allowed to kick them out.
Many of the children are orphans who found refuge in the home after the 2007/8 post-election, having been displaced from Mathare during the chaos.