Boy shot as scores injured in Naivasha land row

A land row in Naivasha has left scores of people, including a 14-year-old boy nursing gunshot and machete wounds.

This followed a night of terror in Moi Ndabi village, 50kms from Naivasha town- where one group attacked the other, leaving several injured.

Residents accused police of taking sides in the dispute when they were called to quell the violence in one of the compounds.

They accused the police of shooting the boy in the leg instead of stopping the violence. Naivasha OCPD Samuel Waweru said that he was not aware of the shooting incident but promised to investigate the matter.

The boy was admitted at the Naivasha Sub-county hospital while three other victims were treated and discharged.

Following the incident, tension was high in the village that is home to hundreds of the victims of the 1992 Enoospukia ethnic violence.

According to a local leader Jane Wanjiru, the problem was caused by the double allocation of land by the department of lands.

She said that one group was resettled on the land in 1992 but in 2009, another group also with allotment letters moved in.

“Since then we have never known peace with all parties claiming ownership to this parcel of land and its time the Ministry of Land intervened,” she said.

Wanjiru accused police of taking sides in the dispute noting that some powerful persons were behind the latest violence outbreak.

This was echoed by Purity Thatia who said that her son was shot as police moved in to arrest her husband over the clashes.

She narrated how police stormed her house in the wee hours of the morning beating up the family and shooting the teenager on the leg before fleeing after members of the public intervened.

“We have never known peace in this home as our houses have been demolished on three occasions yet we know no other home,” she said.

She said that they were settled on the land in 1994 adding that they were in shock when another family came in ten years later claiming the same parcel of land.

A village elder Daniel Kiritu, said that they stood with the victims of the shot boy and called on senior government officers to intervene.

He said that some of the unscrupulous traders with the support of the police were behind the attacks adding that they would not be cowed.

“We are living in fear due to threats by the known land grabbers who have the support of police but we shall not vacate this land,” he said.