Biography of Kheiv Chenda

Housing and Land Rights Activist

Ms. Kheiv Chenda, representative of Boeung Chhouk Community, currently lives in Toul Por Pe village, Sangkat Toul Sangke II, , . She was born in 1971 in Sampor village, Svay Ang Commune, , province. At that time, her father was a commune chief but he was killed by the Khmer Rouge regime. She joined school in 1984 and decided to stop at grade 7 at Svay Pa-em high school in in 1990 in order to help her mother’s business. Currently, she is a widow and her daughter is a garment factory worker in Phnom Penh.

In 1996, Ms. Chenda went to Phnom Penh with her sister to work as a construction worker. She worked there until 2014. Ms. Chenda spent some of her income to rent a room with her sister until 1997 when she acquired possession of a land and built a small house located in Boeung Chhouk village, Sangkat Toul Sangke, Khan Russey Keo (the location name changed to Toul Por Pe village, Sangkat Toul Sangke II in 2015) without obstruction from the authorities. 12 years later, on 8 March 2009, about 200 forces from Khan Russey Keo, including policemen, military policemen and private security forces, had destroyed 6 houses of villagers without prior notification. They notified the villagers they should remove the remains of the houses by themselves and come to the district office for a meeting within three days. They said that villagers were illegally living on state land. Ms. Chenda said: “March 8th is the International Women’s Day that everyone celebrates all over the world, but for my community, it is the day we suffered because of the eviction …”.

After the incident, Ms. Kheiv Chenda collected money and gathered villagers to prepare a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen. At that time, they created a community aiming at protecting housing and land rights from abuses and at seeking support from local NGOs. Thanks to her courage and her determination to protect housing rights, Chenda was elected as community representative in 2009. On 12 May 2010, more than one year after the destruction of the 6 houses, Russey Keo authorities notified villagers that they were living on an occupiedownership land. Furthermore, on 12 July 2012, Phnom Penh Municipal Court summoned four villagers including Ms. Kheiv Chenda, allegedly charged with violence against the real property owner, in 2009. At that time, however, the accused did not know land owner. Her case had proceeded last for almost three years with legal representation from a local NGO until the charge was dropped on 23 June 2015. Even then, Mr. Lao Tongny remained unknown.

Since the dispute at Boeung Chhouk community in 2009, the community received multiple threats. In 2014, fires erupted in 26 houses and in 2015 sand was dumped over four houses and villagers were accused of living on a public road even if the land was fenced as a private belonging. Regarding this land dispute, the Boeung Chhouk community filed a complaint and a petition to national level institutions, but there is no resolution yet. However, in May 2016, the authority measured the land and gave villagers their land certificate. This document was just an identification to show to Phnom Penh authority in order to get a new land of a 4m x 15m. The location of the land they would get remained unknown. On 28 December 2016, Ms. Chenda and her community requested the Phnom Penh authority to show the location of that land.

Ms. Kheiv Chenda is concerned that one day she will be imprisoned because of her advocacy for housing rights. However, she will never stop her activism and leave her land where she has been legally living since 1997. She is optimistic that the new governor of Phnom Penh Municipality will offer an acceptable solution for victims without making people cry.