• Three big commercial farmers diverted water. Others upstream said they had permission from a chief to divert water for irrigation
• Residents unblocked the river peacefully, without damage to properties or injuring farmers
Image: John Kamau
Five hundred Thika East residents have unblocked six water points where influential commercial farmers had diverted water from Ndarugu River, which is drying up.
It took the intervention of Tika Town MP Patrick Wainaina on Monday to avert a bloody clash as the residents had said they would 'teach the tycoons a lesson.'
Residents confronted three 'tycoons' — commercial farmers — in Munyu and Komo who had blocked water from flowing downstream to them and instead had diverted it to their own farms.
More than 500 residents marched for 10km to the farms owned by the big farmers in Juja farm, Ndarugu and Nyacaba in the lower parts of Juja constituency.
For eight hours they destroyed barricades and moved huge boulders, quarry waste and hundred of sacks filled with soil to restore normal river flow downstream.
Officers from MP Wainaina's office led residents in unblocking the river peacefully, without damaging property or causing injury.
But the upstream farmers said they had been given permission by a chief to block the river and use the water to irrigate their crops.
“Our chief told us we can hold water and use it on our farms," farmer Paul Ng’ang’a, also known as BJ, said.
The large-scale farmers had diverted the water to irrigate their commercial arms, where they grow tomatoes, kaleand cabbages on large scale. They are the major suppliers of the food crops to Githurai, Wangige and Marikiti markets in Kiambu and Nairobi.
However, downstream residents said more than 5,000 residents, including schoolchildren from Munyu, Komo, Githima, Magana and Gatuanyaga villages, were suffering from acute water shortage caused by the big farm owners.
For the last one month, they have been forced to buy water from as far as Makongeni and Thika town, not less than 12km asolely way.
They said a 20-litre jerrycan of water costs Sh70 to Sh100.
“Most residents settled here in the 1960s, and we have never experienced such a situation even during the worst drought of 1984," resident Joseph Kaboro said.
"But with this diversion of water from the river upstream, we have been subjected to the suffering we have never gone through before. Our right to access the resource has been hampered by a few greedy individuals.”
Kaboro said schoolchildren, especially at Munyu Girls Secondary School, a boarding school, have been orst hit by the illegal acts of the farmers.
“Most of us including the schools depend solely on the river for domestic use water because we don’t have piped water. It is sad for our children in school to go for days without bathing because of the farmers. We will not allow this to happen again,” he said.
Resident Terresia Kioko said livestock have also suffered. Four cows have died for lack of pasture and water, she said.
The region is semi-arid and with the prolonged dry weather season, livestock have not been getting enough pasture. The problem was exacerbated by the individuals who blocked water from flowing downstream. "I’ve lost two cows and my neighbours have lost theirs too,” Kioko said.
The farmers are criminals, who should be arrested and prosecuted, she said.
Construction sites have stalled, leading to massive loss of jobs by youths in the region due to lack of water.
Resident Paul Karanja who’s developing a three-storey building in Munyu said his site has stalled for the last one month when the river went dry.
“I laid off my 40 workers at the site, since I couldn’t continue without water,” Karanja said.
Police officers in the area have also complained of serious water shortage as they too depended on the water pumped from the river.
“We are too going for days without a bath or forced to part with a lot of money to get water. The situation is serious,” one police officer said.