Call for land re-distribution raises tension in Lamu

LAMU, KENYA: Land could define the politics of Lamu county again following calls for the re-distribution of 350,000 acres that national government recovered from ranchers and handed over to the county government in January last year.

Some local politicians have expressed concern over delays to allocate the land to residents one year down the line arguing it could find its way to the wrong hands again.

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) gubernatorial nominee and former Lamu county council chairman Abdalla Fadhil said he was worried that the huge chunks of land could end up in the hands of influential people if not redistributed to the landless as soon as possible.
His concerns were echoed by Lamu East parliamentary aspirant Mr Mohamed Madhbuti who argued that said residents lacked title deeds leading to many land disputes.

"The national government repossessed the 350,000 acres from influential people who had irregularly acquired the land but there is danger of another set of powerful people being allocated the land at the expense of the landless in the county," Fadhil argued.

But contacted for comment, Lamu governor Issa Timamy said the county government was in the process of doing a proper plan for the surrendered land to ensure it was put to good use.

He noted that there was no roads and that areas for various uses were not set aside and hence the residents should be patient.
"We are in the process of making a proper plan for the land. We have to ensure there are roads and other amenities," Timamy explained.

In 2013, Timamy campaigned on the platform of land reforms and repossession of irregularly allocated land in the county leading to the cancellation of several ranches allocated illegally in 2015.

Fadhil noted that the county was suffering from many unresolved land issues due to unfair allocation of land that forced President Uhuru Kenyatta to revoke some ranches about a year ago.

In January last year, the national government announced that title deeds of land totalling 353,770 acres were cancelled and the land returned to Lamu County for public use.
The land was returned to the public for farming and other development purposes.
President Uhuru Kenyatta met leaders from Lamu at State House, Mombasa then advised them use the land for the benefit of their people. "You can set aside land for industries, markets and other public amenities that will directly improve the lives of the people," President Kenyatta had said.
But Mr Fadhil noted that the present challenge was for the county government to fairly redistribute the land to the residents noting that power brokers were eying the land particularly following the prospects of the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia (Lapsset) transport corridor infrastructural projects.
"One individual used to have a 50,000 acre ranch in this county and we fear some influential people are positioning themselves to be allocated large chunks of land repossessed by the national government and deny the ordinary people the right to own this land," noted Fadhil
Fadhil who is also a Mombasa businessman called for development of a policy on how to re-distributed the recovered land to stop influential people from grabbing it again.
On his part Mr Madhbuti, son of former Lamu East MP Abubakar Madhbuti, said failure by government to issue locals with title deeds posed the risk of many people being dispossessed.
"We have many land disputes in Lamu East particularly Siyu, Pate and Kiwayu after irregularly allocation of huge tracts of land. We want this problem resolved as the Lapsset project was being implemented to protect the poor from losing their ancestral land," Madhbuti argued
governorship noted that many residents were concerned about how land was being distributed particularly after the national government returned more than 350,000 acres of irregularly acquired land to the county government.