Kisumu Landlord Beaten By Tenants After Switching Off Electricity

Kisumu Landlord is currently under ICU after he received serious beating from tenants who accused him of switching off electricity from the main switch and keeping the key, he is also accused of intentionally increasing rent.

This angered the tenants who were forced to beat up the landlord and accused him of extorting them each and every time with increased bills that are not well explained.

Many Kenyans have asked the government to direct all landlords to do away with rents and reduce water and elctricity expenditure                  

Millions of people will see their jobs and incomes hit by the economic effects of the virus and cannot afford to feed their families and pay all the water, rent and electricity bills.

Banks have told mortgage holders they can negotiate a payment holiday.

The Residential Landlords Association says members should also allow affected tenants to pay later. Others are calling for a more radical approach.

 The loss of income puts pressure on what is often the tenants’ biggest bill, the monthly rent.

A host of banks have said to people in a similar position who have a mortgage that they can defer their home loan repayments for up to three months, although individual banks have different rules.

This does not generally extend to landlords’ buy-to-let mortgages, but landlords’ groups have called on banks to treat these in the same way.

No such widespread policy is in place for tenants wanting a similar pause

Some feel that tenants seeing their income drop should be given more support as, unlike a landlord, they have no asset to fall back on.

Richard Murphy, professor of practice in international political economy at City University of London and the author of the Tax Research blog, said that tenants should be given three months rent-free.

The cost would be carried by the landlords who, he argued, had an asset and would still need the tenants in the future.

He added that for many tenants, this crisis would create a major cash-flow problem, and so action was needed to keep people in their homes