Displaced for 48 years, group wants Ocean front land back

Mokowe elder Bakar Omar Laussy (in white) addresses the media flanked by members of his community at Hindi Magogoni in Lamu West on Thursday. The group claims they were displaced from their land during the 1963-67 Shifta war. [PHOTO: MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD]

Undeterred by the scorching rays of the tropical sun, a group of elderly men and women emerge from the thick and thorny shrubs in Mokowe area of Lamu County. It is 2pm. They are in a spirited search of graves.

With sweat dripping down into the sands, Mzee Ali Shekue raises his head with optimism and hope the crypts, shrines, communal boreholes and other historical marks would fortify their ancestral claim to the vast parcels of land in the area.

Mzee Shekue and his colleagues are determined to reclaim the land they claim their forefathers were banished from in the 1960s during the bloody four-year Shifta war.

“We were the first communities to become IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in independent Kenya. We have lived as IDPs for the last 48 years,” says Masuo Ahmed Masuo, who has documented the Bajuni, Orma and Wakore communities’ history.

The hardships endured on the shores of the Indian Ocean are etched across their faces.

Some still live in shanties near Bandari Salama under awful conditions. Others are paying homage from as far as Tanzania where they had taken refuge over the years to stake claim to the land of their fathers where they were forcibly displaced four decades ago.

Armed resistance

“We are the most desperate people having remained displaced and landless for nearly half a century,” says Mzee Shekue.

Hundreds of members of the Bajuni, Wakore and Orma were displaced by the Shifta war (1963 to 1967) from their land stretching from Kibirikani, Hidio and Unga at the shores of the Indian Ocean in Lamu.

The Shifta war broke out when a Somali militia group claiming parts of the Coast region from Kilifi to Lamu launched a guerrilla war to repossess those parts.

Kenya’s security forces moved in to suppress not only the militants, but perceived sympathisers too, sparking massive internal displacement of the Bajuni, Orma and Wakore communities.

According to the victims, the government focus then was on suppressing the armed resistance and not the plight of civilians displaced by war.

It is also at this period that the government enacted an Indemnity Act aimed to blocking residents affected by the atrocities from seeking legal compensation or benefit.

This left hundreds of displaced members of the Bajuni, Orma and Wakore communities hopeless, landless and homeless, but opened floodgates for private developers to stream to the prime land that the government has earmarked for the development of the Lamu resort city.

National Land Commission (NLC) Chairman Mohamed Swazuri told The Standard on Sunday that the commission was not aware of the plight of these Kenyans.

“I am not aware because no one has ever contacted me about them,” said Swazuri. But the villagers have letters that reveal that they have contacted the NLC and the ministry of Lands in the past.

Ancestral land

Other villages affected by the Shifta skirmishes include Ashuwei, Kiduruni, Simambae, Mvundeni, Rubu, Ishakani, Mkokoni and Kiunga. Also affected were Mwambore, Matironi, and Stesheni.

Most of the displaced took refuge in Ngomeni, Watamu, Malindi and Mombasa while others crossed over to Tanzania.

According Masuo, the government ordered the communities to move out of their homes during the war and were never assisted to reclaim their land.

Now, the three communities want the government to formally resettle them in their ancestral land.

But there lies a big challenge - the land has been allocated to private developers.

“We moved to the caves and after the war, we constructed shanties along the shores of the ocean. Our efforts to reclaim our land have not been successful because the land has been invaded by tycoons,” says Shekue, as he rashly squeezes his red eyes to remove foreign particles.

“Our parents were uprooted from this area. We have lived as squatters on our land but we are optimistic that our grandchildren will live here as land owners,” he adds.

According to Masuo, the IDPs are claiming ancestral ownership of 40,000 acres of land that stretches along Bandari Salama and they are captivated by the discovery of their forefathers’ graves. Graves they term as a lifeline.

“In the recent past, we have witnessed massive surveying of the land without our involvement and consideration especially from the rich people. We have presented our memorandum to the NLC but we have not been assisted,” says Masuo.

“They have bought titles but we have graves of our forefathers to prove that the land belongs to us. That is the only thing we can afford,” says Masuo.

As the The Standard on Sunday traversed with them, they discovered the historical marks to prove that one of their heroes, the late Abdurahman Said ake Bombo, lived in the area.

Bombo is famed for the brave fight against foreign invaders like the British, Portuguese and Arabs who tried to access the area from the Lamu. Masuo says they have documented up to seven graves of their ancestors to back their case.