- Criticos, who served as Taveta MP for 10 years, has sued the National Lands Commission to renew the property lease.
- He said all squatters were settled on his former land adjacent to Machungwani Farm.
Image: SOLOMON MUINGI
Former Taveta MP Basil Criticos has urged politicians to stop politicising the Machungwani Farm dispute.
He accused some politicians of inciting residents against him, warning this might trigger an invasion.
“Their statements border incitement, intolerance and racism targeting a person and property. The government should take legal action against them,” Criticos said.
In an interview on the farm on Friday, the former legislator further asked Taita Taveta officials who want the land given to locals to wait for a court ruling.
Criticos, who served as Taveta MP for 10 years, has sued the National Lands Commission to renew the property lease.
Campaigning at Mboghoni in Taveta a fortnight ago, Governor Granton Samboja said the farm's lease will not be renewed.
“Residents have a right to own land and we shall go for it. Machungwani land belongs to the locals,” he said.
Samboja told residents that he is working with the NLC to iron out any issues arising.
The 2,700-acre farm has been a subject of disagreement and unending court battles between Criticos and local leaders and squatters.
The 99-year lease was granted in 1914 to Captain Morgan who later transferred it to Basil’s father George Criticos.
It expired in January 2014 and Criticos has been pushing for its renewal since then.
In an interview with the Star, Senator Jones Mwaruma said people who have settled on the farm should be allowed to own the land since it was allocated to them by the former MP.
In the 1992 and 1998 general election, Mwaruma said, the former Health assistant minister allowed landless people to occupy the fertile land as a campaign strategy.
“He lured voters by allowing them to settle on parts of the land. He had promised them that he shall let them own it,” Mwaruma said.
The land tussle has been attributed to Criticos’s failed attempts to make a parliamentary comeback.
However, Criticos has said there are no squatters on the farm and those occupying it are land grabbers. He accused the government of failing to protect the land from invasion by squatters.
Criticos said all squatters were settled on his former land adjacent to Machungwani Farm.
In 2018, the Agricultural Finance Corporation settled at least 4,435 squatters on more than 7,200 acres initially owned by Criticos.
They were settled in Eldoro, Mrabani, Mboghoni, Kimorigo, Python Hill, Riata and Mokine.
The vast farm was taken over by AFC in 2017 after Criticos allegedly failed to repay a Sh400 million loan he took between 1988 and 1989.
The National Bank of Kenya seized the farm to settle the debt, before handing it over to AFC for sale.
Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya