Agency calls for resettlement of 200 families displaced by tribal clashes

The Counties Land Management Board (CLMB) has recommended more than 200 families displaced during the 1992 tribal clashes be resettled.

The families were displaced from their homes around Thessalia along the Kisumu-Kericho border during the clashes.

In a letter to the National Lands Commission (NLC), the board wants alternative land be identified for resettlement as conflict over ownership of a parcel identified for their relocation deepened.

Their efforts to get resettled by the State in Kibigori Plantation on the Kisumu-Nandi border have met resistance from current dwellers.

CLMB coordinates all the 47 county land management boards.

The board's national chairperson Polly Owoko said the resolution was reached on June 25 after it emerged the allotment of a portion of the Government settlement scheme to the squatters failed to consider that it had existing settlers.

"We held a consultative meeting with both parties laying claim to the land and resolved that an alternative location had to be sought for the Thessalia squatters," Owoko said.