evictions - The African Mirror

Jun

2021

Mass demolitions, evictions as Nigeria continues housing push

KELECHUKWU IRUOMA DEMOLA Adeleye and his family were sleeping in their three-bedroom bungalow when they were awoken by the sound of bulldozers demolishing the homes around them. In February a task force sent by Lagos state's New Towns Development Authority (NTDA) started bulldozing all the structures in the coastal neighbourhood of Oke-Egan and evicting the occupants. "I am pained and depressed," Adeleye, 38, said with tears in his eyes. "Look at where I have been sleeping with my wife and four children," he added, pointing to a half-finished building behind his welding workshop where his family has been staying since…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Empty offices to co-living: Five ways cities tackled housing crises in 2020

AFRICITIES

JOE TABARY FROM affordable home shortages to ongoing evictions during the pandemic, the past year has laid bare worsening housing crises around the world. Armed with digital title deeds and empty offices, here are some of the ways cities sought to tackle those challenges in 2020: EMPTY OFFICES THE coronavirus pandemic has increased pressure on governments to address shortages in housing and allowed authorities more freedom to convert empty offices. Nearly four out of five chief executives expect the pandemic to entrench remote working, according to accountancy firm PwC, and various companies, like Twitter, have already said that some of…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Residents fight upscale evictions in Kenya conservation push

AFRICITIES

DOMINIC KIRUI ON a sunny Saturday morning, Waswa Wekesa stood outside his family's four-bedroom home in a middle-class Nairobi suburb and tried to understand how the government could raze it to the ground. "I bought this piece (of land) in 2002, immediately after getting a job," the 48-year-old management consultant lamented as he recalled how hard he had worked to build the house. "I was only 30. I didn't take out a bank loan but used all my salary through the years to purchase the land and to gradually build the house," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Wekesa's house…