Residents from Green Ville Estate in Mlolongo, Athi River Sub County have protested against a contractor for blocking an access road to their homes.
They held peaceful demonstrations at the blocked section of the road connecting it to Mombasa Road on Sunday.
The Green Ville Gardens Residents Association’s chairman Patrick Amunyunzu said more than 5,000 residents had been denied access to their residences.
"We are protesting today because we have blocked from accessing our residences by a contractor doing a service lane joining Mlolongo and Athi River towns,” Amunyunzu said.
Amunyunzu addressed the press during the demonstrations.
He said the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) did not notify them before blocking the road.
“It happened suddenly, most of us have found ourselves locked out with our vehicles.
We cannot get out of our homes with vehicles, some of them are packed in Mlolongo town since they cannot be driven home due to the blockage,” said Amunyunzu.
The residents said they had never experienced such despite the fact that some of them had lived in the estate for more than 20 years.
“We are saddened by this act of KeNHA and we do not have an alternative road to use, that is why we are protesting today,” added Amunyunzu.
They said the national government should speedily intervene into the matter for KeNHA to unblock the road.
Amunyunzu said the estate and its neighborhoods had been adversely affected by the situation since residents’ children cannot go to colleges and universities while some locals cannot go to work.
He said they had raised the issue with some of the local leaders to no avail.
"Most of us found the road blocked when we came from work on Friday, the contractor never gave us any notice that the road was going to be blocked,” Amunyunzu said.
“Our access lies between two estates, Valley View and Seshe Gardens but both have their access roads open. So, why have they blocked our access and we are just at the middle of these two estates,” questioned Amunyunzu.
Amunyunzu questioned why KeNHA cannot work on the section of the road with the access road open like it is doing for the two estates.
He said the residents were being discriminated.
Amunyunzu said their security had been compromised since police officers can no longer patrol the estate.
He said it was a serious issue and an urgent solution.“We have no access to security since police seized the patrols due to the road’s blockage,” said Amunyunzu.
Amunyunzu said water pipes to their homes had been disconnected by the machinery working on the Mombasa road’s service lane.
The residents threatened to stage more demonstration if the road is not opened immediately.
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