- Former Taveta MP Basil Criticos has been pushing NLC to renew the title.
- More than 5,000 squatters have been complaining ownership for that land.
Image: SOLOMON MUINGI
Thousands of farmers living as squatters on Machungwani Farm in Taita Taveta can now breathe easy after the National Land Commission declined to renew lease for the land.
More than 5,000 squatters have been living in fear of eviction from the contentious 2,700-acre farm owned by former Taveta MP Basil Criticos.
The farm has been the epicentre of disagreement and unending court battles between Criticos, area leaders and the squatters.
On Monday, NLC chairman Gershom Otachi said the commission had not granted an application by the former legislator for the renewal of the lease.
“We want to assure residents living on the farm that the commission has not renewed the lease. Part of the matter is being handled by the Senate and the courts. The residents can continue living peacefully on the land,” Otachi told journalists in Mwatate.
The 99-year lease was granted in 1914 to Captain Morgan, who later transferred it to Criticos’ father George Criticos. It expired in January 2014 and Criticos has been pushing for its renewal since then.
Otachi, who was addressing the press after a closed-door meeting with Taita Taveta Governor Granton Samboja and some MCAs, said the commission is committed to ending the long standing land tussle pitting Criticos and residents.
He further noted the lease renewal is a nationwide issue and there are laws that guide them on that process, therefore, there is no cause for alarm.
“Residents in Taita Taveta should continue living in peace. Land matters should not be used to divide you," he said.
Otachi expressed optimism that permanent solutions would be found in a bid to resolve land issues.
Samboja said the commission had agreed not to renew the lease, adding that there would be no lease renewal for any other contentious parcel in the region.
He said the county government will continue fighting for the farms to be reverted to the residents despite pressure from land cartels and politicians to have the lease renewed.
“The information that the lease for the title number 5827(IR No 1056) Machungwani had been renewed by the county government is not only false, but also serves to further the agenda of political opportunists who are hell-bent on advancing their devious and selfish political agendas,” Samboja said.
Jesse Mnene, a resident, claimed the land tussle is hindering the farmers from exploiting the full potential of the agricultural farms in the region.
He asked NLC to speed-up the process of reverting the land to the local community to save them from continued eviction threats.
"Taita Taveta residents highly depend on crop production, but they are living in fear of being evicted from their ancestral land. They should be allowed to repossess their land,” Mnene said.
While visiting the area last month, Senator Jones Mwaruma said in the 1992 and 1998 general elections, Criticos, who was then a former Health assistant minister, allowed the landless people to settle on the agricultural rich farm as a campaign strategy.
“He lured voters by allowing them to settle in parts of the land. He had promised them that he would let them own it,” Mwaruma said.
The land tussle has been attributed to Criticos’ several failed attempts for his parliamentary comeback.
However, Criticos has separately claimed there are no squatters on the farm and that those settling on the farm were mere land grabbers. He accused the government of failing to protect the land from invasions by squatters.
He said all genuine squatters had already been settled at his former AFC land, which is adjacent to the Machungwani farm.
In 2018, the Agricultural Finance Corporation started the process of settling at least 4,435 squatters in the over 7,200 acres of land initially owned by Criticos.
They were settled in Eldoro, Mrabani, Mboghoni, Kimorigo, Python Hill, Riata, Mokine among other areas.
The vast farm was taken over by AFC from Criticos in 2017 after he allegedly failed to repay a Sh400 million loan he took between 1988 and 1989.
The National Bank of Kenya seized the farm in a bid to settle the debt, before handing it over to AFC for sale.
Criticos has taken the NLC to court seeking the commission be compelled to renew the lease.
-Edited by SKanyara