A section of Mombasa residents led by Kaya elders took to the streets yesterday protesting rampant land grabbing in Kisauni, Kinango and Bamburi.
The residents claim politicians, tycoons, judicial officers and some provincial administration officers accused the civil servants of colluding to sell of chunks of land.
They matched from Buxton area to the Mombasa law courts where they petitioned Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to speed up various land cases. The chanted anti-Orengo slogans before presenting the petition to Chief Magistrate Stephen Riech.
Dressed in their traditional attire, the elders, represented by Pekeshe Ndeje, accused the Mombasa judicial officers of corruption and incompetence.
“We have for years advocated for judicial processes as the best way to solve land problems in this region, but we now feel that the bubbling land problem in Coast is about to burst owing to ineffectiveness and barefaced corruption among some of the judicial officers in Mombasa,” said Pekeshe.
Ngumo Charo, the residents’ spokesman, who also claims to have lost land to the dubious investors in Mombasa, said Coast people are fast losing the faith they had in the reformed judiciary.
“We feel that the Courts are currently being used to legitimize illegalities in land acquisition in the region,” said Charo. According to the Kaya elders, Mombasa currently has about 50,000 squatters, Kwale 25,000, Kilifi 26,500, Malindi 22,000 and Lamu about 24,000.
They said the numbers have recently increased as more investors from outside the Coast region evict indigenous residents. They claimed the number of questionable title deeds has increased. The elders and the residents called on President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to intervene.