Protest as MP allegedly puts up a chief's office on private land

Laikipia West MP Patrick Mariru (L). [Boniface Okendo/Standard]

A row has erupted between a Member of Parliament and a cooperative society over ownership of a parcel in Nyahururu town.

Members of Losogwa Cooperative Society have accused Laikipia West MP Patrick Mariru of erecting a chief’s office on the firm’s land without their consent.

“We are shocked that the MP did not engage in public participation and went ahead to put up the structure. Our efforts to reach him have been futile,” the society’s chairman Michael Ndung’u said yesterday.

Mr Ndung’u said Mr Mariru had used National Government Constituency Development Fund cash to build on part of the two acres in Losogwa area.

The members vowed to bring down the building if they were not compensated.

Another ploy

Ndung’u said the society had lost more than 30 acres to grabbers.

“We fear this is another ploy that the leader wants to use to convert the property to public land and yet it is the property of the cooperative society,” he said.

Reached for comment, Mariru said the property on which the chief’s camp was built was public land and that public participation had been conducted.

“We consulted residents who proposed the site. I am shocked that some people are now claiming it,” the MP said.

Ndung’u said one of the facilities on the land was a cattle dip that was used by society members and expressed fear that they would lose access to it if the property changed hands.

He claimed that two of their leaders were shot in mysterious circumstances in the past two years after they raised the alarm on improper acquisition of the society’s property.

“It is in the public domain that we have lost two people who questioned how people in Government got title deeds for part of our land. We call upon the government to intervene and help us,” he said.