Thread by @She_Ra_She_Her

#Kenyan / #British / #Indian twitter - please boost! A Kenyan Asian family were evicted from their #Nairobi home (now demolished!) by a group of men who flashed a court order and threw belongings outside, #stealing some, after beating up the guard. Thread 🧵 #KenyaLandGrab

A British citizen who has lived in Kenya for 50 years was evicted suddenly from his home in suspicious circumstances on 4th November 2022, with valuable items being stolen. The house has been demolished now too! #KenyaLandGrab

An auctioneer by the name of Baraza + 30 people carrying crow bars and machetes descended on the property situated in Westlands at around 12:30pm. They broke in, climbing over the gate and through the neighbours fence and entered the compound. #KenyaLandGrab

Once inside, Baraza's men attacked the guard with stones and crow-bar, he was profusely bleeding & had to be rushed to hospital.

Resident's wife was terrified as she thought they'd come to rob and murder her, and she was alone in the house. #KenyaLandGrab

Baraza and his men broke into the house using crow-bars. Baraza refused to identify himself and just flashed court orders quickly to resident's wife saying these are eviction orders – he did not give her a chance to read the document properly. #KenyaLandGrab

She just read LARIAK PROPERTIES LIMITED vs the claimant and starting questioning Baraza about who Lariak Properties Ltd are, and what this had to do with the property? He refused to let her read the full court document or give her a copy. #KenyaLandGrab

Baraza casually informed her she had 30 minutes to pack and his men would than start throwing things out of the property. They didn't even wait for 30 minutes; within 15 minutes they started throwing items out of the property. #KenyaLandGrab

B's men had starting stealing, and drinking and eating food. They took laptops, iPads, iPhones, various jewellery, watches, camera, electronic items, household items, personal documents, company documents, clothes, money etc. #KenyaLandGrab #theft

Wife called owner who rushed home from work -took about 45m. When he arrived he found items had been thrown out, people running in and out of main gate stealing things & giving them to colleagues waiting outside in bikes (boda boda) to carry away items! #KenyaLandGrab

When the owner entered the premises, he asked Baraza for the court order – B refused to show him the orders saying he had shown the copy to the lady. He blatantly refused to show docs despite owner asking several times over the next 4 hours. #KenyaLandGrab

Owner's lawyer arrived around 1:30pm and asked Baraza for a copy – he refused. Lawyer had called media to record but when Baraza found out, he refused the media entry & physically threw the lawyer off of the property – refusing him entry. #KenyaLandGrab

Friends and family tried to help & had contacted the OCI/OCPD of Parklands and Spring Valley and Gigiri to send police to the premises to stop this sudden eviction. #KenyaLandGrab

Several police officers in uniform and plain clothes came but within 15 minutes they all left the premises without helping. Someone higher up was informing the police not to interfere in this eviction #KenyaLandGrab

The owners were left helpless & heartbroken to see these people destroy their property and there was nothing they could do. Is this how British citizens/anyone is treated in Kenya? They have lived peacefully in the country for over 50years. #KenyaLandGrab

They hired trucks to move whatever they could salvage to a secure place but time at around 6pm Baraza started instructing his workers to throw stuff onto the roadside. They lost many more items in the process as whatever they were moving out was getting stolen! #KenyaLandGrab

The family are now homeless and trying to comprehend what has happened to them. The house has already been totally ransacked in the meantime! #KenyaLandGrab

All this happened in a matter of 48 hours. B's men were very smart to come on a Friday afternoon when they knew it would be very difficult or almost impossible to get hold of officals. #KenyaLandGrab

They are urgently seeking help to recover what's left of their property back from these lawless people. They have taken the property illegally and the police, who are supposed to protect the innocent, are sitting back and not taking any action. #KenyaLandGrab

Before the rest of the ransacking, valuable items were taken such as laptops, jewellery, personal and company documents #KenyaLandGrab

Videos showing some of the destruction #KenyaLandGrab twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

I have now seen a photo of the supposed court order but nothing has been clarified - why weren't the owners contacted?! Please RT this thread and share with anyone who can help/boost. #KenyaLandGrab A notice by Nairobi City County not to demolish the property was also ignored!

An anonymous senior police officer, according to this news report by Citizen TV ( @citizentvkenya) states that Lariak Properties Ltd. didn't follow the correct process. #KenyaLandGrab #CorruptionInKenya? #Justice #KenyaTogether #Peace

@threadreaderapp unroll please

UPDATE: now that officials are listening to social media and investigating #KenyaLandGrab it turns out that Zachary Baraza has been arrested! the-star.co.ke/news/2022-11-0… @citizentvkenya @KenyanGlobalNet @AfricansinUK thanks for the update @TheStarKenya

Never mind. They are just looking to be seen as investigating. He was taken to the cop station, given tea and biscuits and after 1 hour told go home and have a nice day. #KenyaLandGrab how is this ok? @citizentvkenya @TheStarKenya @KenyanGlobalNet

This looks like it may become a huge problem for Asians in Kenya, plus democracy for all Kenyans. Nairobi is feeling lawless. @TVSanjeev @MeeraSyal @Nina_Wadia @monisha_rajesh @parmindernagra @sajidjavid @adilray @Lilly I'd appreciate you boosting this story #KenyaLandGrab

UPDATE: I've seen a motion against Zakariah Baraza filed today. This lays out facts such as theft and needing to recover items (household goods and personal effects) taken by goons. I hope this #KenyaLandGrab crime is taken seriously! @citizentvkenya @KenyanGlobalNet