Ruto's team thrown out of offices

By Beauttah Omanga

A building that served as the headquarters of leaders opposed to the adoption of a new constitution has been closed over a Sh1.2m rent arrears dispute.

The Kenya Railways, owners of the building, reportedly sent a team to the Red Card Centre offices located at Nairobi’s Upper Hill area that threw out all equipments and locked the place.

“We were asked to guard the place on grounds that the tenant had failed to pay rent,” said a guard.

But on Sunday, Dr Tom Namwamba who served as the director of the ‘No’ team, which was led by Eldoret North MP William Ruto, denied that his team still owed the landlord any arrears.

“We don’t owe Kenya Railways any rent arrears. This is pure politics geared at frustrating Ruto’s 2012 presidential ambitions,” said Namwamba. He questioned the timing of the evictions.

“When somebody owes you rent areas, you don’t throw out property but lock them inside until the tenant clears. It is strange that ours were not only thrown out of the offices but even outside the compound,” lamented Namwamba.

Talking to The Standard on Sunday, Namwamba said it was illegal for the landlord to break into the offices and throw out their expensive equipment without having given them any quit notice.

He said while the tenant-landlord agreement stipulated that, before any eviction is effected, the defaulting tenant must be given a three month quit notice to comply or face eviction, the Red Card team never received such notification.

“In our case we never received any notification of eviction making the whole episode suspicious” said Namwamba.

He said his team was still behind Ruto and that no amount of frustrations will make them abandon the Eldoret North MP’s dream. Namwamba said the same offices had been earmarked as a long-term headquarters for Ruto’s future campaigns.

Namwamba, who is also a university lecturer, said a number of MPs who identified with the NO team during the referendum campaigns, were planning a protest match to the Kenya Railway headquarters to seek explanations over the embarrassing Saturday evening incident.

He said Ruto’s team will be relocating to a new offices awaiting resolution of the dispute. None of the top Kenya Railways management officials would be reached for a comment over the incident.