Government wants talks to end Mwea land disputes

Embu,

Friday, January 26, 2024

KNA by Steve Gatheru

The Government wants court disputes on the controversial Mwea settlement scheme land subjected to alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

Embu County Commissioner Jack Obuo said they are persuading litigants in the cases that are pending in the Land and Environment Court to agree to come to talks to have the decades-old land problems in the scheme resolved once and for all.

Obuo said such talks will include residents, interest groups, and the political leadership in an inclusive process.

Mr Obuo, who was addressing a security baraza at Makima market also sought to reassure residents that no one was going to evict them from their homes.

Anxiety has gripped the residents of Wacoro, Riakanau, Karaba and Makima adjudication areas following rumours that surfaced in December stating that strangers had begun showing up with title deeds claiming land on which families had lived for over 50 years.

There has been an uneasy calm in the Mwea and Makima wards since the botched 2016 allotments of land in the settlement scheme when people from outside were allocated plots of land and many of those who were already living on the land left out.

The lopsided allotments sparked off days of rioting in 2018 in the scheme that left one young man shot dead and another paralyzed with a bullet still lodged in his lower body. 

Mr Obuo, Thursday, said the government was determined to see outstanding issues resolved but said such resolution could only come when all parties were determined to find a solution. 

Area leaders and residents led by MCAs Phillip Nzangi and Job Itumo had told the County Commissioner that they were peaceful people who wanted to see the land problems solved amicably. 

Responding to a question by the MCAs on why the area’s Land Control Board which had been appointed and gazetted last year had not started work, Mr Obuo said the board needed to be brought up to speed on the areas in the two wards they couldn’t touch as doing so would aggravate the current land problems. 

During the meeting, local leaders and residents had sought assurance from the government that they wouldn’t be evicted.

On alcoholism, the County Commissioner said they agreed with the Embu County Government that the licenses of bars operating in the villages, near schools and churches be revoked as a means of restoring order in the alcohol business.

Courtesy; KNA