Five hacked as clamour for fertile Mwea land escalates

Residents opposing the issuance of title deeds to beneficiaries of Mwea scheme land set ablaze a car belonging to retired District Commissioner Ireri Ndongo'ng'i. [Joseph Muchiri, Standard]

Dispute over the ownership of Mwea settlement scheme in Embu County reared its ugly head on Friday when five people were hacked with crude weapons as they visited their plots.

The victims including retired District Commissioner Ireri Ndong’ong’i who are recuperating at the Embu Level Five Teaching and Referral Hospital, epitomise the controversy over the expansive 44,000 acres scheme.

Tension is high in the disputed scheme after police arrested three suspects behind the attacks.

Area OCPD Ahmed Mohammed said initial investigations show some people opposed to the survey and allocation of land, had hired goons to attack the beneficiaries. “The three suspects will be arraigned in court on Monday. We are also looking for two prime suspects believed to have incited residents to accost the victims,” he said yesterday.

Mohammed however, ruled out stopping the exercise, saying from next week allocation of land to the beneficiaries will continue and security will be provided.

“I caution members of the public against taking the law into their hands since nothing will stop the Government from enforcing security and protecting beneficiaries,” he said.

Peaceful demo

He noted that after they started erecting beacons on the land three weeks ago, the process was largely smooth. Mohammed alongside Mbeere South Deputy County Commissioner Beverly Opworah and County Lands Executive Josephat Kithumbu have been spearheading allocation of land to some 7,232 beneficiaries.

But the scheme dwellers believe they are being dispossessed off the land illegally.

On Monday, about 1,500 scheme residents held a peaceful demonstration to protest plans to evict them from the land.

They walked for about 10km from Mwanjo market to Makima market in a last ditch effort to appeal to the government to quash the survey done in 2016 when 7,232 title deeds were issued.

They said they were not part of the beneficiaries and have nowhere to go.

“We have complained but this has been met with intimidation. No one seems to listen to us. Where is the Government now before things get out of hand,” said John Kako, 60, who has lived on the land for years and missed out on the allocation.

Phyllis Kalekye’s family knows no other home and they also missed out on the land. Beacons have already been placed on the land they have called home for years.

“We were humiliated during that exercise. They forcefully entered the house early in the morning and put beacons as all the children watched. They destroyed the crops that we had planted and now we are starring at a possible eviction,” said Kalekye.

Kithumbu, who oversaw the surveying and land allotment, insists that due legal process was followed.

“The county government has accomplished a fete in legally demarcating and subdividing the contentious scheme, after successive governments failed due to political interference since the 1970s.