Over 800 squatters to be settled on Prisons Service land

Dozens of the squatters who attended the meeting narrated how armed Prisons warders had been raiding the land. [Standard]

 

The controversy surrounding the disputed Kenya Prisons Service plot in Voi town has taken a new twist.

The Senate Committee on Lands, Environment and Natural Resources declared that it belongs to Taita-Taveta County.

The more than100 acre-plot in the outskirts of Voi town has been at the centre of conflict between the Prisons department and more than 800 squatters who had been living on the plot since 1900.

Addressing the squatters, Mwangi Githiomi, the chairman of the Senate Lands Committee, said the Prisons department should be allocated land elsewhere.

"The land should be given to the squatters who have been occupying it for years. The land belongs to the people because the Prisons service is yet to develop it,” said the Nyandarua Senator.

Githiomi told the squatters they will liaise with the National Land Commission and the Ministry of Lands to ensure squatters get what is rightfully theirs.

He was with Senator Jones Mwaruma and Nominated Senator Victor Pringei.

Dozens of the squatters who attended the meeting narrated how armed Prisons warders had been raiding the land.

Abdala Juma, a squatter, said, “When I hear that the land belongs to the Prisons department I feel disappointed. We have been cultivating the land since 1947."

The squatters told the Senate committee the land is important for their socio-economic well-being and any attempt to deprive them of their rights would be resisted.

Juma Mwambogha narrated how armed officers raided the area and fired to scare away the squatters.

He told the Senate some rich individuals had been allocated land in the area.

“The land has been sub-divided into plots by land cartels who want to build apartments,” stated Mwambogha.

Human rights activist Haji Mwakio told the committee residents settled on the land before the construction of the Kenya-Uganda railway line.

In Taveta Sub County, the GK Prison has about 100 acres of land at the disputed Machungwani Farm formerly owned by former MP Basil Criticos.

On the outskirts of Wundanyi town, the department has five acres at Mwasui village.

The county has four correctional institutions -- Manyani Maximum Security, Wundanyi, Voi and Taveta GK Prisons -- all with huge land residents and politicians say was irregularly allocated.

But outgoing County Prisons Commander Nicholas Maswai said the plots in question belong to the Kenya Prisons Service.

He warned politicians against inciting residents to invade private property.