Kibarani land row exposes injustice against the poor

 

 

Kibarani is a place that many of us are familiar with but mostly for the wrong reasons. If you have spent long hours in a sweltering traffic jam, been blinded by smoke or overcome with the horrific stench from the dumpsite, you know what I mean. But the face of Kibarani is changing fast and for the better. 

Mombasa County Government is at last getting to grips with the awful garbage problem and in a short period of time have managed to close the dumping site with the promise of relocation. Elaborate plans to create a public recreation facility in its place have been flouted in a game changing move. This week, however, Governor Hassan Joho announced that the land had been grabbed and the plans put on hold. 

However, within hours, President Kenyatta intervened and ordered the National LandCommission (NLC) to repossess the landwhile he committed the national government to assist in the rejuvenation project. The fruits of the March 9th cooperation had reached Mombasa with this happy ending or so it would appear were not for a few major obstacles in the way. 

Defence reports

For the past five years, a company with a title deed for the land has spent millions of shillings, perhaps billions, on reclaiming the land and they most likely will not take the presidential decree lying down.

They will cite in their defence reports from the Kenya Ports Authority and Kenya Forest Service giving them the nod of approval to proceed with their mega project. All of the aforementioned expressed concerns about pollution, shoreline change, loss of mangrove forest, impact on fisheries and traffic increase and wrote to National Environment Management Authority (Nema) about their objections. 

However, they eventually approved the continuation of the project. Nema issued a certificate of approval and the NLC Chairman Muhammad Swazuri in November 2016 in a letter to the company gave the go ahead while insisting on strict adherence to the conditions prescribed by each agency. There was no question then from Mr Swazuri about the validity or source of the Title Deed. Mombasa County had gone to court to stop the project so they must have been relieved by Mr Kenyatta’s intervention. However, the project is at a very advanced stage and one wonders if the recreational park will ever see the light of day. The reclamation has already linked Mombasa to the mainland so we can no longer speak of Mombasa Island. 

When the matter comes for public hearing, as we hope it will, just about every concerned body has questions to answer in what appears a very suspicious deal that puts the public interest in jeopardy. Mombasa County too will have to explain how the Director of County Planning gave approval to the proposed reclamation project in the first place. So don’t hold your breath if you anticipate a quick resolution to this matter.

Granted to political cronies

There is another side to the Kibaranidumpsite story, however, and that concerns those who reside on the other side of the highway. They have been threatened with eviction - even been illegally bulldozed in 2012 - but receive neither recognition nor support from the county or national government. That primarily is because the 900 families live in the shadow of the highway so are less visible and consequently of less value and importance than the dumpsite. Most of them eke out a living in the dumpsite. They are the working poor who have made Kibarani their home and where the church provides a decent educational service for their children.

The land that they occupy was granted to political cronies from the Kanu era. The community have resisted being evicted or bought off for a decade. On the day that Kenyatta intervened in the grabbing the residents won a major ruling in Mombasa courts against one of the beneficiaries of the irregular land allocation.

But they now wonder why Kenyatta could not have also intervened and ordered the NLC to repossess their land and instruct Joho to proceed with the Big Four agenda of providing decent housing for the poor in Kibarani. 

The 20,000 who were bulldozed into oblivion last week in Kibera would ask similar questions. Did the March 9th handshake settle their fate as their former representative remains silent.

Handshakes mean nothing if they don’t give more protection and services to the poorest and most deprived sectors of society. Kibarani shows there are two sides to every road and story and we know which one matters for the political elites. 

- [email protected] @GabrielDolan1