Squatters with property worth millions of shillings in Mombasa

Some of the structures constructed at the controversial Waitiki Farm in Likoni, Mombasa County. [PHOTO: OMONDI ONYANGO/STANDARD]

MOMBASA: Before the infamous 1997 Likoni clashes, the controversial Waitiki Farm was famed for its thriving agricultural activities.

According to its owner, Evanson Kamau Waitiki, the 930 acre farm was home to over 900 heads of cattle and 300,000 chicken. It gave him a cumulative monthly income of Sh1 million through sale of fresh milk, beef, chicken and fruits which he exported to South Africa, Europe and even Saudi Arabia.

However, after Waitiki’s forceful eviction, the land has over the years been transformed from an agricultural stronghold into a residential and commercial area with palatial houses whose owners have been baptised “squatters”.

ECONOMIC MIGHT

Unlike other parts of Mombasa where squatters live in shacks surrounded by poverty and squalor, the settlers on Waitiki Farm have put up modern homes and luxurious condos whose owners say are worth millions of shillings.

Despite this obvious show of economic might, the Government has said it is committed to buy the land so as to resettle the “squatters” and this has renewed interest on the remaining unoccupied land.

According to Nyale Chiti, a land lord with two houses in the area, developers are fighting over the little land still available with some willing to buy existing structures, demolish them and put up modern houses.

“Investors have been sending scouts to owners of the few remaining single-family homes or those with old or incomplete homes, trying to persuade them to sell the property,” he said The Standard.

Chiti and his wife, Phyllis Kilingu are former employees of Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) who say they used all their retirement benefits to buy land at the farm and build understated Swahili houses.

GOOD RETURNS

Their total investment is Sh3.6 million and they make Sh81,000 each month in rental fees from the two houses.

Another KPA retiree, Salim Silim, has four houses which cost him Sh5 million to construct.

“Waitiki should be compensated and we are ready to pay. Let people not lie to Government that we did not know this was his land before we bought it.

Let Government come up with a formula to raise the Sh10 billion demanded by Waitiki. Maybe it can raise half and then require all land owners to each pay Sh200,000,” he said.

According to Government estimates, 120,000 residents live on the land which was sub-divided and illegally sold to the owners who now hold fake allotment letters and titles.