Kaya elders have made a passionate appeal to the Judiciary to address historical land injustices they have linked to killings of the elderly.
The elders from Malindi District Cultural Association (Madca) also called on the Environment and Land Court to speed up the cases as they were a major contributing factor to the massive killings on false allegations of being witches.
They spoke outside Pwani University in Kilifi ahead of the official opening ceremony of the National Environment and Land Conference to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the court.
President William Ruto and Chief Justice Martha Koome are expected to grace the occasion.
The elders said it was sad that innocent elders were killed by youth as a result of land.
Carrying a banner marked 'MY ELDER MY BEACON' and dressed in full traditional regalia, the Kaya elders blamed the killings on bad land policies that do not protect the elderly.
Many elderly persons in Kilifi have been butchered and more are under threat for allegedly practicing witchcraft but the Kaya elders said the main cause of the killings was land and called President Ruto to intervene.
Madca chairman Emmanuel Mnyaya said as Kaya elders have serious concerns over the elderly killings which investigations found were a result of land.
He said the killings were high in the past few years as they could lose nine to 10 elders in one week but now the numbers have gone down to three per week.
"We do not have exact data of the elderly being killed but in 2012 we got statistics of that year which indicated that 490 elderly were murdered in cold blood," he said.
The elders were accompanied by representatives of the Utu coalition which comprises 35 groups of human rights and civil society organisations that came together last year October following the brutal murder of four women in Marani over allegations of practicing witchcraft.
Dr Kerubo Abuya, who is one of the Utu coalition representatives, said they have been working together as a group to seek justice and advocate change in Kisii and Kilifi.
She said old women and widows in Kisii were being murdered after being accused of being witches but they are aware the core problem is land.
"We continue to stand in solidarity with the community in Kilifi to say that these are gross injustices and human rights violations. We want to ask the court that is sitting today, the Environment and Land Court to take these land cases very seriously," Dr Abuya said.
She said among those who were present were elderly living in the rescue centre run by Madca because their lives are in danger.
Dr Abuya said many of the elderly have been chased from their homes because of violence coming from their own children.
"Some of them have pending cases in court that have not been resolved. We want to tell this court to make sure that these cases are addressed and that these people who are now displaced, some of them already dispossessed of their land, can get justice and be able to go back to their homes," she said.
Dr Abuya asked the President, all governors, MPS and MCAs to take the killings seriously since people were losing their lives over false allegations in Kisii Nyamira and Kilifi.
Madca secretary Joseph Mwarandu said the problem has caused a lot of tension because elderly people are being butchered like animals.
"Youth have lost moral values. They do not respect elders and do not find their value, that's why they kill them in cold blood," he said.
On the ELC, he said the Judiciary is supposed to resolve the historical land injustices as the majority of the residents are squatters on land owned by tycoons.
As per the law, he said, one who stays as a squatter on land for more than 12 years rightfully gets ownership of the land through advance possession.
However, in the Coast region, he said when the matter goes to court the matter is not taken strongly because the land owners are the ones who have money.
Mwarandu said cases of witchcraft killings take so long and most investigations are not done properly, leading to the release of suspects.
"The court takes matters of defilement with a lot of weight but matters of elderly killings are taken lightly. If they could apply the same weight to the elderly killings, the issue could be addressed," he said.
Sikubali Nyoka, a village elder from Madunguni who also is a Kaya elder, said the killings are rampant in her area.
She said the killings are not as a result of witchcraft but because of land, adding that the youth want to inherit the land and sell it to buy motorcycles for boda boda business.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
