Heartbreak as families left homeless in Kwale

Hundreds of families, many of them women and children at Gazi village in Kwale County on Monday, watched helplessly as their homes were reduced to rubble under the watch of police officers.

The residents said the very places they had known to be their home had been grabbed by well-connected people leaving them destitute.

“We are left without anything and nowhere to go after we had poured our lives and savings into the land,” said one distraught woman.

“The land in question was meant for squatters. We are the rightful owners. The MPs whom we’ve been relying on went silent. They took our names, and promised to help… but where are we right now?”

The demolished settlement sits on a 306-acre piece of land the families had called home for years.

They say they had cultivated the land, built permanent houses, and even constructed community spaces like churches — believing it was theirs.

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“We have for years ploughed our funds into this land, knowing very well that it is our property — only to be met with a rude shock by marauding youth in the wee hours of the day, surrounded by trucks of police officers,” recounted another resident.

According to the affected squatters, the demolitions came without any formal warning or court orders.

“The bulldozers descended on our homes at 3 a.m. They were escorted by police officers. No notice. No explanation. Just destruction,” said another resident.

She claims that in 2013, a court had ruled that at least 100 acres of the land should be set aside for the squatters after a legal petition over ownership.

One woman recounted the harrowing accounts as the goons descended on their houses.

“They demolished our house while I was sleeping inside with my children. Some of us are still paying off loans we took to build these homes,” she said.

Msambweni MP Feisal Bader condemned the act as “inhumane and irresponsible.”

“This is not justice. It is the protection of private interests at the expense of hundreds of vulnerable families,” he said.

The tragedy is not isolated. In recent years, the Coast region has seen rising cases of forceful evictions and disputed land ownership, often involving private developers, absentee landlords, or politically connected individuals.