Hezron Mutuku, 52, a shop owner in Umoja Innercore Esatae in Nairobi has a distraught look on his face.

He needs to raise Sh50, 000 quickly so that he can to relocate his family of four and goods from his shop to any other building before government bulldozers arrive.

A building opposite his shop has an orange gate hanging precariously and the street that separates him from the building is packed with concerned tenants.

"The city council bulldozers tore it down yesterday and asked every tenant to move out as the building will be brought down within two weeks," said Mr Mutuku.

One tenant, a mother of three, moved out in a hurry scared that the impending demolition may be done in the middle of the night and catch her unawares.

A couple of blocks from Mr Mutuku's shop, a group of women are seated in a circle, chatting about the predicament that has befallen them.

Along the street leading to Mr Mutuku's shop are at least 15 buildings marked X in red with the word 'Demolish' written underneath.

The red painting reminds one of a television advertisement of a late night horror movie.

On the other side of town in Lang'ata, a middle class residential estate, the same marks abound. Not even a mosque has been spared. One building under construction which has a big X on its unfinished walls has disgruntled casual labourers lamenting about the disappearance of the owner and delay in payment of their wages.

The back view of the building, however, reveals an extension into a road reserve.

Another building, standing clearly in the middle of a street, also bears the 'demolish' mark.

The building, a two bedroomed apartment complex five floors high, may have cost millions of shillings to construct and is fully occupied.

The X marks indicate the start of one of the sternest campaigns that City Hall has ever embarked on, which are meant to rid Nairobi's middle and lower income residential estates of buildings that were put up on road reserves, public land and those that do not meet stipulated building standards.

All will be brought down in the next two months as City Hall moves into the third phase of the city planning re-organisation that started two years ago.

Contrary to previous warnings, the council is breathing fire this time around and has promised to bring order into the wider Eastlands region, Lang'ata and Otiende estates, among others, in the next 60 days.

Deputy Director of planning at City Hall, James Maina, says the operation has started with a number of houses in Umoja, Lang'ata, Tassia, Pipeline and other estates marked for demolition.

"The number of houses put up during the election skirmishes alone could be as high as 10, 000," said Mr Maina.

City Hall says that owners of the houses have been served with notices and even taken to court over the issue.

Such attempts have in the past fallen on deaf ears, with landlords being set free after paying fines of between Sh50,000 to Sh100,000. But in some cases, courts have issued orders that the houses be demolished.

With the planned upgrade of Nairobi into a metropolis, and the Ministry of Lands closing doors on corruption avenues, City Hall has found the much needed shot in the arm to rein in errant developers.

"We decided on this option as landlords have already gotten used to our orders and none intended to comply," said Mr Maina.

Last year, the Architectural Association of Kenya approximated that 80 per cent of houses in Nairobi have not been built in accordance with building regulations and standard requirements due to lack of a master plan and a lapse in enforcement of the rules.

The re-organisation of the city, started two years ago with the clearing of alleys in the central business district, proceeded to the demolition of illegal structures in upper income residential areas and clearing constructions on road by-passes.

How do owners of the buildings get around the council? According to City Hall, there are three ways such landlords -known as Miradi in building circles- use to evade the council's watch especially in Embakasi and Kasarani areas.

They sell allotted land using fake titles and even begin construction projects on the land to boost their sales, hence the name Miradi.

This encourages others to buy the land and construct, not knowing that the sellers are not genuine owners of land and that they stand to lose out big time.

In cases where land is rightly held, the designs of houses approved by the council are altered to accommodate as many tenants as possible.

The extensions end up damaging sewer and water pipes, resulting in bursting of pipes and mixing of clean water and sewage in some extreme cases.

Others end up being too close to main water or sewer lines such that any connection to the houses involved results in overflowing sewers or leaking water taps as a result of the pressure.

Burn their fingers

"The case in Umoja was a classic example where one built a house on top of a main sewer and water lines," said Mr Maina.

Most estates affected by this are low-middle income ones, especially in Eastlands.

Upper income areas have not been left out either. In areas like Karen, landlords put up additional detached structures in their compounds, contrary to by-laws, which allow for only one dwelling unit per acre of land.

Here, according to City Hall, individuals put up detached housing units for their children or for additional rent income. The practice is, however, not widespread.

Mr Mutuku and thousands of other tenants in Nairobi stand to bear the brunt of the repercussions of an action not of their making as City Hall moves to stop unscrupulous developers who have put up buildings without complying with building by-laws.

Many tenants will lose their rent payments for June, or one or two months deposits which they had already advanced to the landlords, plus other charges.

The problem arises from failure by landlords to inform tenants that their buildings have been earmarked for demolition, creating an angry mass of tenants.

"We do not understand how the council comes up now and issue notices while we have already paid rent for the houses," said Margaret Wangui, a tenant in an apartment in Lang'ata.

City Hall says it may be at fault in some of the allocations. It has, however, put in place a number of measures to stop the practise.

Architects, who are agents for the developers to the council, will have to sign an affidavit committing themselves to the council that what they approve is what is constructed.

If the developer changes the design, in writing, the architect should pull out from the development and inform the council.

The council has also increased the number of inspectors to over 10,000.

While critics say that the move is in the right direction, but too little too late, a number of tenants will most definitely burn their fingers.

"Tell me where I can get Sh50, 000 at a short notice to move my family especially as food costs continue to spiral?" asked Mr Mutuku.