John Mruttu on the spot over boundary dispute between sisal farm and locals

 

Taita Taveta County Governor John Mruttu has been challenged to do more to end the suffering locals are enduring at the hands of the sisal farm’s management. PHOTO: COURTESY

By RENSON MNYAMWEZI

Taita-Taveta, Kenya: The Taita Taveta county government has been warned about rising tension among squatters due to the long standing boundary dispute involving the management of the giant Teita Sisal Estate and Singila and Majengo villages.

 Leaders in Taita Taveta told governor John Mruttu to spearhead a long lasting solution when they spoke at a prayer meeting convened by Mwasima Mbuwa Welfare Association, a land lobby group in Mwatate town yesterday.

The prayer service attended by MPs Joyce Wanjala Lay, Andrew Mwadime and Thomas Mwadeghu, as well as several religious leaders was, however, boycotted by all Members of the County Assembly (MCAs).

“You cannot be governor while the residents of your county are being subjected to suffering in their own ancestral land by the management of the sisal estate. If I were you I would not have allowed such a situation to continue unabated,” Mwadeghu told Mruttu who was also present at the meeting.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

“You already have constitutional powers and you do not need any directive from anybody to address the boundary dispute. You have the powers to send surveyors to the dispute area and once and for all define the boundary,” he said.

A visibly irritated Mwadeghu also lashed out at the National Land Commission for allegedly burying their head in the sand.

 “I told the Land Commission chairman Dr Mohammed Swazuri that the squatter issue in the region is a time bomb. We cannot allow our people to continue suffering under the ruthless and arrogant managers of the sisal estate anymore. Enough is enough,” he said.

 Mwadeghu continued: “The governor has capacity to solve this land problem and if he cannot, then the parliamentary committee on land will solve it within two weeks. If I were the governor, today the farm managers would have been sitting in my office,” he said.

 In response, Mruttu said his administration is still waiting for recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on Land to act.

He said the land wrangles in Voi, Mwatate, Wundanyi and Taveta sub-counties require concerted efforts by all leaders to adequately address them.

 “There is no need of blaming one another on this land problem. As elected leaders we need to put our heads together to find a lasting solution to the thorny squatter issue,” he said.

AT LOGGERHEADS

“I have my own responsibility to play as far as land matters are concerned. The National government has also its role to play on matters pertaining to land. Elected leaders should stop politicking and instead unite for the same course,” Mruttu told the gathering

 The management of the farm, regarded as the largest in East and Central Africa, has for years been at loggerheads with local residents over the actual boundary separating the farm and the two villages.

Villagers have accused the farm management of allegedly altering the original boundary and aggravating the crisis.

 “We have suffered under the hands of ruthless farm managers as local government official’s watch. The farm managers have been unleashing ferocious dogs to feed on our goats and we can no longer stomach this. The government is protecting land owners at the expense of locals who are living as squatters on their own land,” an activist Mnjala Mwaluma told the parliamentary committee.

 The Parliamentary Committee on Lands had earlier issued summons to the management of the farm to appear before it to shed light about the controversy surrounding the boundary involving them and residents of Singila and Majengo villages.

Committee chairman Alex Mwiru ordered the farm managers to appear before the committee with relevant supporting documents to discuss the long-standing boundary dispute.

 “The management committee has to appear before us and we want them to explain to us why farm managers and police have been harassing innocent squatters yet the boundary between the two parties have not been determined,” said the Tharaka MP.

 Speaking in Mwatate town during a public forum Mwiru ordered for re-survey of the disputed boundary which has been the epicenter of conflicts for years.

STERN WARNING

“Residents have been denied the right to build houses and access to water from the community dam situated at the farm. The management of the farm has also been using police and provincial administration to harass residents on flimsy grounds and we will not allow this to continue happening in independent Kenya,” he warned.

“Police are supposed to protect lives and property. Their work is to arrest criminals, not to harass innocent people,” he said.

 “The sisal farm is not a National Park and sisal plants within human settlements should immediately be removed by the management to protect lives and property. If the farm managers fail to implement the order then stern action will be taken against them,” Mwiru warned.

 Mwadeghu, a member of the land parliamentary committee confirmed that the farm managers are yet to appear before the committee.

 “We will summon the farm managers possibly next week,” he said.

 The Farm’s Managing Director Phillip Kyriaz told local leader’s to stop fighting investors and instead work with them to address the myriad problems facing locals like high poverty and unemployment levels.

 “It is within their right as politicians to say whatever they want so long as they do not incite residents to invade private property,” he said.