He explained that the police were deployed to maintain order.
“During the demonstrations, some activists and teachers led in bringing down the wall and at some time, police fearing that the situation would go out of control lobbed teargas into the crowd,” he explained. “The action resulted into the school children who were part of the demonstrations to be caught in the melee.”
Two activists were arrested for allegedly inciting the students in bringing down the perimeter wall of the disputed land and are currently held at Lang’ata Police Station.
Arachi also said three other people were arrested after they were caught vandalising guard rails “in the name of demonstrations.”
On January 16, the National Land Commission (NLC) said preliminary investigations show that the two acres of land under contention near the Wilson Airport footbridge belong to the Lang’ata Road Primary School.
Speaking at the school, NLC Chairman Muhammad Swazuri said that land records show that the public institution was awarded the grant for the land in 1974 after an initial allocation of 7.5 acres in 1972.
He however explained that further investigations were necessary as land records also show that the private developer, who has fenced off the land, was granted 0.6ha of it in 1989 and 0.2ha in 1994.
Swazuri said it was also necessary to investigate how the developer, identified as Airport View Housing Limited in correspondence over the ownership of the land, obtained the necessary County Government authorisation to erect a stone wall around the land.
Until then, he said, the stone wall should come down.
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