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As of Wednesday, May 12, the pupils still couldn’t access their classrooms. [Muriithi Mugo, Standard]
Pupils of Ndunguni Primary School in Mbeere South, Embu County reported for Term Three studies on Monday, May 10, but couldn’t immediately access their classrooms.
The learners’ classrooms had been occupied by internally displaced persons.
Nearly 3,000 families were displaced from Makima by the Tana and Athi River Development Authority (TARDA), which in late April claimed ownership of land inhabited by the families. Evictions were, consequently, embarked on.
The affected persons were subsequently accommodated at different public facilities, including Ndunguni Primary School.
However, it meant the IDPs, who had sought refuge at the school, had to be relocated when schools reopened on May 10.
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A displaced woman ponders her next move at Ndunguni Primary School in Mbeere South, Embu County. [Muriithi Mugo, Standard]
For more than five decades, a group of elders have known Ndunguni village in Makima, Mbeere South in Embu County as their only home.
Never did they anticipate that one day they would be homeless.
But a week ago, the elders together with hundreds of residents found themselves at Ndunguni Primary School as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) after their homes were demolished.
The demolitions by Tana and Athi River Development Authority (Tarda) has created a humanitarian crisis. Several organisations are in the process of doing rapid assessment to ascertain the needs at the school that has been converted to an IDP camp.
Kenya: World Press Freedom Day 2021 – attacks against journalists continue
Summary
Today, on World Press Freedom Day, Article 19 Eastern Africa, highlights just a few of the cases of attacks against journalists that have occurred since the last World Press Freedom Day on 3 May 2020.
On 24 April 2021, police beat and injured nine journalists in Makumi, Mbeere South, Embu County. The journalists were covering a story regarding the forceful eviction by police officers of families from a contested land, said to belong to Tana and Athi River Development Authority (TARDA). This was the second time police beat journalists covering stories over the same disputed land. On 13 May 2020, police assaulted and arrested three journalists reporting on a demonstration by residents over the demarcation of the land claimed by TARDA.[1] In the two incidents, the arrested journalists were later released without charge.
Some of the journalists arrested as they covered the Tana and Athi River Development Authority (TARDA) demolitions at Mbeere in Kenya were assaulted by police during the arrests.
The journalists who were arrested alongside Mbeere South Member of Parliament Geoffrey Kingâangâi have lamented their ordeal at the hands of police after they were released Saturday night.
They were arrested as they covered the demolitions and eviction of residents from Bondoni area of Embu county. And the actions by police did not stop there. They barred the journalists from reporting the matter, with officers at Kiritiri police station initially denying them p3 forms.
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Police in Makima as shops were demolished in what residents believe was a move by TARDA to evict them. [Muriithi Mugo, Standard]
Mbeere South MP Geoffrey King ang i and a group of journalists including KTN reporter Daniel Moige and Cameraman Muriithi Mugo are being held at Yatta Police Station.
The legislator and journalists were arrested while covering the evictions of hundreds of squatters at Makima area in the Tana and Athi River Development Authority (Tarda) disputed land.
The arrests come barely a month after scores of the residents vowed to resist evictions by Tarda which has accused them of trespassing on its land.