Hundreds of slum residents have asked a Kenyan court to stop them being evicted from state-owned land, their lawyer said on Wednesday, a week after authorities demolished the homes of 30,000 Nairobians living in one of Africa’s largest slums.

The National Building Inspectorate, a state agency in charge of housing safety, issued a notice to residents in six Nairobi slums on July 19 warning that their houses would be demolished in August.

"We want them to be given time to move,” said lawyer Soyinka Lempaa, who is representing about 300 slum residents.

 "(Evictions) should be done in accordance with the law and as humanely as possible,” said Lempaa, who works with the Katiba Institute rights group.

Moses Nyakiongora, secretary of the National Building Inspectorate, said in a phone interview that people had invaded and built on Kenya Railways and Kenya Power’s land and resisted efforts to relocate them.

"There is encroachment with impunity, even where orders have been given,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"People live very dangerously, even near railways and power lines, and when something happens they claim compensation from government. We need to do something now.”

Agencies