Narok, Migori counties in a dispute over 30,000 acres of land adjudicated before independence

A section of Maasai elders from the Uasin Gishu clan in Trans Mara sub-county want 10,000 acres of their land that was allegedly transferred to former Nyanza Province before independence to be returned. This is after a group of elders and residents of Migori petitioned National Land Commission to assist them return more than 30,000 acre land in the former Olontare, Keiyan, Sikawa and Oldanyati group ranches in Trans Mara.

The Maasai elders claim that before 1963, the defunct Narok county council leased the land to the former Migori county council for their residents to do agriculture but when the demarcation of boundaries of former Rift Valley and Nyanza provinces were done, the land did not revert back to them.

“When demarcation was done, it remained in the former Nyanza Province. We want back our land for us to live in harmony with our Luo neighbours,” said Charles Saiwa, one of the Maasai elders privy to the historical Land injustice Case. NLC commissioner Samuel Tororei told The Standard the two communities have raised issues that the commission is investigating.

During a recent NLC meeting in Narok aimed at resolving the issue, the clan said it would go to court to have the matter resolved, arguing that the largest clan in Transmara would lose sizeable land that legally belongs to it. James Yampoi said members of the clan want to live in harmony with their neighbors, claiming that the unresolved issue was responsible for recurrent.land clashes along Narok and Migori counties boundaries.

[Source: The Standard, by Steve Mkawale]