Why land, resources are thorn in the flesh of Taita-Taveta governor

WUNDANYI: Taita-Taveta is a county of immense treasures including the Big Five in the vast Tsavo National Park, variety of mineral deposits, the picturesque Taita Hills with endemic bird and plant species.

Other treasures include the spectacular Mzima Springs, Challa and Jipe lakes.

Despite these enormous natural resources that can turn around the county’s economy and livelihood of residents, the region is still grappling with high poverty and unemployment levels, persistent food shortage, poor roads, lack of water, low education standards and inadequate health facilities.

Notably, about 80 per cent of gemstone mining is done in the county but residents remain poor and landless, earning little or nothing from the mineral.

Other challenges include the longstanding boundary dispute between Taita Taveta and neighbouring counties like Makueni, Kwale and Kajiado, squatter menace, disunity among elected leaders, widespread sale and consumption of illicit brew and drugs, witchcraft, defilement cases, gender based violence, insecurity and HIV and Aids.

Persistent human wildlife conflict has been going on for decades without proper channels from compensation and redress. Every month, a resident is killed by elephants in Tsavo National Park or those that stray into homesteads.

At the same time, the region is dogged by unresolved land conflicts with 60 per cent of the total land area occupied by the Tsavo National Park, 24 per cent by private farms while residents only occupy a paltry 12 per cent.

These challenges have given Governor John Mruttu sleepless nights as he strives to transform the county.

“It is not easy being the first governor of a county marginalised for decades,” he said.

“The county was seriously marginalised. Mzima Springs, for example, are in the county, but the water is tapped and piped to Mombasa more than 200km away yet there are residents here who have serious challenges of water for domestic use, irrigation and livestock,” says Mr Mruttu.

The governor says his administration has prioritised education, water provision and agriculture to boost the economy of the region.

To settle the long-standing squatter problem that has stagnated development, a rights lobby group has challenged the county government to revive all the stalled settlement schemes to settle the families. Coast Land Rights group official Haji Mwakio says: “Some of the adjudication sections, which started way back in 1970 stalled and this has compounded the already thorny squatter issue in the region. The county government should lobby and ensure that all stalled settlement schemes are revived for the benefit of the landless.”

Settlement schemes

The stalled settlement schemes include Mwananch, Mwachabo settlement schemes and Wumari -Sechu Adjudication Section.

The group wants sub-county land management committees formed to help identify idle land for repossession.

“We want to know who owns land in the region because this will help the county administration to negotiate with the major land owners to surrender part of their huge chunks of land to settle the landless,” he says.

The group further wants the county government to set aside land for future expansion and investment. “Counties like Machakos have set aside free land for investors. The county government should also do the same to encourage investors to come to the region,” says Mr Mwakio.

Senator Dan Mwazo concurs with Mwakio: “There is enough idle land between Ndara and Bachuma that can be set aside for an industrial park and create wealth for the poor.”

The group called on the county government to utilise water from Mzima Springs for irrigation to improve food security. The lobby further wants construction of more dams and water pans to harvest water during the rainy seasons for domestic, livestock and wildlife use to help minimise human-wildlife conflict.

On tourism, Kenya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), Taita-Taveta County chairman Pascal Mtula wants the county Government to involve them in decision-making so that they can exploit the huge potential.

“As major stakeholders in the tourism industry the county government has not fully been involving us in promoting tourism activities. We need to be involved fully if tourism activities are to be improved in the region,” he notes.

“Insecurity in the Coastal region has badly affected tourism. The tourism activities are now very low and bed occupancy is currently between ten to 20 per cent. Something must be done to rectify the situation,” says Mr Mtula.

County Executive Committee (CEC) member in-charge of Tourism Stephen Masamo says the county is in the process of diversifying tourism products to boost the industry.

“We came up with battle field tourism in commemoration of 100 years since the World War I started and this is expected to open tourism and trade. We want to identify and protect all historical sites for posterity, and we have signed an agreement to work with National Museum of Kenya. There are a lot of tourists interested in the Kenyan cultures and with homestay tourism, they are able to interact and learn more which promotes cultural tourism,” says Mr Masamo.

Apart from the Nairobi-Mombasa Road, which crosses through the county for 160km, the only other road is the dilapidated Voi-Wundanyi, which is just about 40km. The other 110km stretch from Voi to Taveta is bad, costing residents heavily both in terms of money and time.

Livestock is billed to be key in transforming the county’s fortunes by 2020 and being the only disease-free-zone region is a plus. Interventions are targeted at cattle, goats, rabbits and indigenous chicken.

Mruttu says the county government is working on a livestock multiplication centre at Bachuma, where it has bought Sahiwal and Fresian cows to breed in every sub county.

He says the county government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kenya Commercial Bank to issue interest free loans to local livestock farms to the tune of Sh30 million.

There are also calls to help local farmers restock their dormant ranches. “We have more than 30 ranches, which are still lying idle. Some livestock traders from North Eastern have leased some of these ranches for fattening animals for export purposes. Authorities should find ways to assist local farmers to restock their ranches to improve their socio-economic well-being,” says Mwakio.

The governor has promised to tackle the mining problem. The county has a number of minerals including gemstones of iron ore. Gemstones are exploited by small scale miners and the government is supporting them by buying them compressors. But a few powerful individuals from outside who have been allowed to carry out mining activities in the vast Tsavo National Park at the expense of the locals. Taita-Taveta Human Rights Watch wants local MPs and Ward Representatives to make laws that will benefit the local community.

The governor says the county has so far organised two mining expos to market the minerals. “We are looking at ways of value addition and we have sponsored four youth for training in mining and polishing in Madagascar. The governor further says his administration has set aside Sh60 million to offer loans to youth, women and people living with disabilities.

But the coordinator, Taita Sub-County persons living with disabilities Darius Kinusa claims that the Taita-Taveta Dawida and Tuweta (Datu) Sawazisha Fund conditions to borrow loans are not favourouble.

“A clause that requires us to have an Income Tax Pin number should be removed because most of the targeted group members are poor. The county administration should ensure that the conditions to get Sh 20 million allocated to them are streamlined for them to benefit from the revolving funds,” he said.

Four MPs say the construction of the multimillion shillings county headquarters at Mgeno should not be a priority. The MPs Jones Mlolwa (Voi), Andrew Mwadime (Mwatate) Thomas Mwadeghu (Wundanyi) and Women Representative Joyce Wanjala Lay want pertinent issues affecting the local residents addressed first before embarking on the construction of the Sh 890 million headquarters.

They say the matter needs to be subjected to public participation first before it is brought to the leaders for approval or rejection