At least 526 families have been evicted from a disputed land at Lamakani in Kisauni. A spokes person for the squatters claimed that a private developer hired goons to kick them out of the 135 acre piece of land.
He said that their houses were destroyed and they were evicted from the property under the watch of armed police officers. And according to the squatters, the said property is their ancestral land.
Land and environment executive Edward Nyale, however, termed the evictions illegal and told the squatters to stay put. He further added that the matter is with the National Land Commission. The Commission conducted a public hearing in August to determine the ownership of the land and is yet to give a report.
The NLC wrote to the Inspector General on August 18 2017 and October 31 2013,asking him to maintain the status quo at the disputed land as the commission works to resolve the dispute.
The squatters accused the government of auctioning their ancestral land in 1970 without their knowledge. Ms Gladys Njeri on the other hand claimed her family bought the land during a public auction in the 1970s, subdivided it and sold it to several buyers and only retained 7 acres.
[Courtesy of Standard media by Bernard Sanga]
