More than 500 families in Madogo, Tana River, are afraid of being evicted by the NYS which is said to have acquired an allotment letter for the land they occupy.
The residents want all the land documents held by the National Youth Service revoked and an independent team to authenticate ownership of the land.
They say the camp on which the NYS is laying claim to was established in 1983 as a transit camp during the tarmacking of the Garissa-Hola Road.
They alleged there was a local arrangement with the community that after they complete the road works they would vacate the site.
Some of the residents were issued with an eviction notice by NYS in 2013. The notice was not effected and now they claim to have spotted NYS officials on several occasions on the land after the announcement by President Uhuru Kenyatta last year that all grabbed NYS land be repossessed and title deeds issued for them.
The residents demanded after holding a meeting on how best to legalise ownership of the land, that NYS vacates the camp since they don’t have any legal documents from the defunct Tana River County Council showing that the land actually belongs to them.
At another meeting last week, the residents turned down the request by their elected leaders that a committee comprising of their representatives, NYS and lands officials from the county government be formed to validate documents held by NYS.
Salat Garacha, a former Tana River County Council chairman, said there are no minutes showing that NYS was allocated the land as was the procedure then.
Garacha reiterated that the land NYS is sitting on in Madogo was a transit camp given to them by Madogo elders when they were tarmacking the Garissa-Bura-Hola Road.
“By issuing an eviction notice, NYS is creating bad blood between them and Madogo residents. According to us, NYS doesn’t have documents to show the land actually belongs to them. The only option left for them is to vacate to avoid confrontation with the residents,” Garacha said.
“If anything the documents they are holding were prepared in Nairobi and the Tana River county government and the custodians of the land were never involved."
MP Ali Wario said he was aware of the dispute and leaders would be exploring all available options to ensure an amicable solution is found.
“We would not like to see a situation where NYS and the residents face each other. We shall do everything within our means as leaders to ensure the issue that has dragged for sometimes is now is resolved once and for all,” Wario said.
Edited by R.Wamochie
