My family relocated to my home area of Kiserian in 1986, about a year or two before I was born. They built on a piece of land in the area a wooden house which resembled the log cabin that Abraham Lincoln grew up in. And that wooden house was my home for many years before my senior brothers built a new brick mansion in 2015.
I have vivid memories of how my home area looked like in the early '90s when I was growing up. The land to the east of our home was covered with wild savannah grasslands. Sometimes when going to Kiserian Town, I would criss-cross those grasslands instead of following the main road so that I could reach my destination in less time.
One evening in 1994, the wild savannah grasslands caught fire. I never got to know what started the fire since I was a small boy back then. All I remember was my neighbors being called to assist in putting out the fire. They succeeded in extinguishing the fire before it escalated into a damaging conflagration.
Back in the '90s, the road leading to our home (which was later christened Church Road) had sisal bushes growing along its sides. Gangsters would sometimes hide in those sisal bushes, waiting to pounce on anyone passing by.
On one early night in 1993, some gangsters emerged from those sisal bushes and attacked my father while he was coming home. They broke his left arm as he tried to defend himself from them.
As the '90s rolled on, the owner of the land to the east of our home sold it. And the people who bought the land have built stately houses which they have fenced with neat kei-apple plants. Among those people is Dr. Titus Naikuni, the former CEO of Kenya Airways. Thanks to such developments, my home area now resembles a leafy suburb for the rich.
Perhaps not wanting to be left behind, an Anglican church in my neighborhood called Good Samaritan Church has built a big church (see photo above). One-storey and spacious, the church must be the biggest of its kind in my county. I once overheard my kid brother Symo tell Dad that the construction of the church has raised the value of land in my home area.
As for me, I came to think that the construction of the Good Samaritan Church was a bad idea since the road leading to it (Church Road) is only wide enough for one car to pass through. Motorists driving on the road have to stop and park on the side when they spot another car approaching in the opposite direction. The situation gets worse on Sundays when Good Samaritan Church goers are departing from a morning service while others are arriving for the next service.
About three months ago, I came across a notice glued on one of my neighbor's gates. The notice said that surveyors would survey my home area to find out which homeowners had encroached on Church Road. That got me worried as I feared our home would be affected and we would thus be forced to pull down our fence that my father struggled to make secure with kei-apple plants in the '90s.
A week or two later when I heard from Dad that our home wasn't among those that had encroached on Church Road, I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God for sparing us the agony of tearing down our fence. I truly was thankful.
It has turned out that the homeowners who encroached on Church Road are the folks who bought the land to the east of our home, the land that had wild savannah grasslands in the early '90s. The homeowners are now pulling down the fences and felling down the trees they had planted along Church Road. They are also demolishing houses next to the road and erecting new fences. And goodness knows how long it will take for kei-apple plants and trees to grow along their new fences if they decide to plant them.
The worst affected homeowner is Dr. Titus Naikuni who has done a lot of demolition and felling down of trees. There is also another affluent neighbor who is being forced to demolish a 3-storey structure that he built next to Church Road. The demolition of the structure, which doubles as a servants' quarters and water tanks holder, began yesterday.
Stressful though the demolitions must be for the homeowners, the Good Samaritan Church goers will be the biggest beneficiaries once Church Road is expanded as there will be no more traffic gridlock on Sundays. And if it is the Good Samaritan Church that complained to authorities about Church Road being too narrow to accommodate two cars, then our good and loving God heard its prayers. Adieu!
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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on demolition in my neighborhood, you might also enjoy another one on "Bidding a Friend Farewell" which I wrote more than two years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.
Demolition in My Neighborhood
A True Story
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