By SHABAN MAKOKHA
July 22, 2026| There are wounds that heal with time. There are others that refuse to close, reopening every morning with the rising sun.
For the family of Kennedy Omondi of Okwethi Village in Koru, Kisumu County, every dawn begins with two painful reminders.”It is like we are mourning twice,” says 68-year-old Omondi, struggling to hold back tears. “First, we lost our son.Now we have lost our home.”
The family’s latest tragedy unfolded on the morning of April 30, 2026. At around 8 a.m., Omondi says a convoy of police officers from Koru Police Station, accompanied by a group of rowdy youths and two men claiming ownership of the land, descended on the homestead.
The home where generations of their family lived, laughed, raised children and buried their ancestors was reduced to nothing.
The houses are gone. The granaries have disappeared. The fruit trees stand alone in an empty compound where children’s laughter has been replaced by silence.Pieces of broken timber, twisted roofing sheets and cracked walls are all that remain of what the family once proudly called home.
For Mr Omondi, every step across the abandoned compound revives memories that refuse to fade.”This is where my mother cooked for us,” he says, pointing to a patch of bare earth. “And there stood my father’s house.”He walks a few metres away: “That was my son’s bedroom.” Then he falls silent. Words refuse to come out of his mouth. Only tears remain.
April 30, 2026, began like any other day. The family was preparing breakfast. Some members were tending to the crops that had sustained the family for decades.Then, shortly after 8 o’clock in the morning, vehicles began arriving at the homestead.
According to the family, police officers attached to Koru Police Station accompanied a group of young men carrying hammers, axes, crowbars and machetes.Also present were two men who identified themselves as the rightful owners of the disputed land.Within minutes, panic spread across the compound.
The family says there was no warning. No court official explained what was happening. No time was given to remove household belongings.Instead, the demolition began almost immediately – the first house came down with a loud crash. Then another.
Family members desperately tried to rescue mattresses, utensils, clothes and family photographs before they were buried beneath collapsing walls.Old men stood frozen. Years of sacrifice disappeared in a matter of hours.
Neighbours gathered at a distance, too frightened to intervene. Some cried openly.Others watched in disbelief as a family they had known all their lives was reduced to homelessness before their eyes.”It felt like we were watching a funeral movie,” recalls Michael Omondi, a son of Kennedy Omondi. “We have been waiting to bury our brother. Only this time, the person being buried was our home.”
By midday, the compound resembled the aftermath of a natural disaster. Except this was no flood, no earthquake or storm. It was people destroying the lives of other people.To an outsider, the demolished structures may have appeared to be ordinary rural houses.
To Kennedy Omondi, they represented an entire lifetime. He was born there. He learned to walk there, married there and raised his children there. Even his parents grew old there. His family history is written into every inch of that land. Every tree tells a story.
Every footpath carries memories.”This is not just land,” he says. “It is our identity. It is where we belong.”He struggles to understand how strangers can tell him to leave the only place he has all along called home.”If someone takes away your birthplace, where do they expect you to begin again?” he wonders.
The conflict dates back nearly four decades.At the centre of the dispute are two parcels of land, numbers Kisumu/Koru/280 and Kisumu/Koru/680.
Gerald Malala and Robinson Malala insist they legally purchased the land from Omondi’s father in 1986 and possess ownership documents proving the transaction.The Omondi family completely rejects those claims.According to Kennedy Omondi, neither he nor any other member of the family participated in any sale agreement.
He insists the documents relied upon by the claimants were fraudulently acquired.”They are trying to erase our history with paperwork that we believe is fake,” he says. Court documents that the family says they possess indicate that the registered owner remained Onyando Omieri, Kennedy Omondi’s father.
The family also points to a 1991 decision by a land tribunal which they say directed that the land be peacefully returned to the family after the buyers harvested sugarcane from the property. According to Omondi, the Sh550,000 proceeds from that sugarcane harvest far exceeded the Sh50,000 allegedly paid for the land through settling of beer bills.
“If they recovered their money decades ago, why are they still pursuing us?” he asks. The Malala brothers, however, maintain that they lawfully purchased the property and therefore remain its rightful owners.
The dispute continues to divide the community while leaving one family trapped between legal battles and human suffering. The demolition did not happen in isolation. According to the family, it was merely the climax of years of intimidation. The family says they were never given notice before the demolition.
In 2023, unknown attackers allegedly invaded the homestead. Family members were assaulted and property was destroyed. The incident was reported to Koru Police Station.
The family says nothing meaningful happened.Then came 2024. Under the cover of darkness, unknown people allegedly set their houses on fire. Flames swallowed everything – furniture, clothes, foodstuff, important documents and even the family photographs.
The family escaped with little more than the clothes they were wearing.Again, they sought help from the police. Again, they say they were left alone.
Before they could recover, another house belonging to Omondi’s brother was allegedly burned in 2025.Each attack deepened their fear. Each report to authorities, they say, ended in disappointment.”We kept believing someone would listen,” Michael says. “But every time we knocked on the doors of justice, nobody answered.”The family says what hurt them most was not simply losing their houses, it was seeing police officers escort those carrying out the demolition.
They accuse officers at Koru Police Station of failing to offer equal protection. For years, they say, they had pleaded with the same officers for protection.
Now, they watched those officers accompany the operation that rendered them homeless.”We could not believe our eyes,” Michael paused. “The officers who knew everything we had gone through were standing there while our homes were being destroyed.””We are Kenyans too. Do our lives matter less?” he questioned.
This heartbreaking demolition is overshadowed by the 2025 tragedy where Kennedy Omondi’s second-born son, Vincent Onyango, died. For more than a year, the body of Onyango has remained in a mortuary.His family has not failed to bury him because they do not love him.
They say they have nowhere to lay him to rest.Like any grieving father, Omondi wanted to bury his son at home. But that wish, he says, was denied.They claim the Malala brothers blocked the burial, arguing the land belonged to them. Since then, the body has remained unburied.
Every passing day increases mortuary bills that the already struggling family cannot afford.The family claims they were prevented from conducting the burial because of the land dispute.With nowhere else to bury him, Vincent’s body has remained in a mortuary for more than twelve months. Each passing day increases the financial burden as mortuary bills continue accumulating.
The emotional pain grows even heavier.Every family meeting revolves around one question: “When will Vincent finally come home?”The family is unable to accept that their kin remains unburied. Friends who attended his funeral preparations have long returned to their normal lives.
But for the family of Kennedy Omondi, mourning never ended. It simply froze in time.”My son deserves peace,” Kennedy says softly. “He has waited long enough.”Today, the family survives through the kindness of neighbours and relatives.Some donated blankets. Others share food. But temporary kindness cannot replace a permanent home.
For a man who spent decades building a home for his family, asking for shelter has become one of life’s greatest humiliations.”I never imagined I would become homeless at my age,” Kennedy says.”I cannot even bury my own child,” he says quietly. “No parent should ever experience this pain.”Without land, without a house, without resources, even giving his son a dignified farewell has become impossible.
Kennedy Omondi says he has grown tired of courtrooms, police stations and endless promises.Today, his appeal is simple.He is asking Kisumu Governor Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o, Muhoroni MP James Onyango K’Oyoo, Koru Ward MCA Vitalis Oliewo K’Omudho, religious leaders, human rights organisations and well-wishers to help him acquire a small piece of land.“I am not asking for assistance to become wealthy. Not to expand my property but only to give my family somewhere to call a home and a place to bury my son with dignity,” he says. “I am not asking anyone to fight for me. I only want a place where I can begin again.”His voice breaks: “And I only want to give my son the farewell every parent owes their child.”
On paper, this is a dispute over ownership of two parcels of land. Inside the Omondi family, it is something far deeper. It is a story of a father watching his life’s work disappear, a family mourning a son they cannot bury and children growing up without the security of home.
As the Omondi family’s grief remains unfinished—a painful reminder linkers – that when justice is delayed, it is not only land that is lost. Sometimes, an entire family’s sense of home, hope and humanity is buried with it.