Kwale leaders want projects revived, land injustices resolved

They made the calls during Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua's visit to the county on Wednesday.

Gachagua had toured Mombasa and Kwale counties for a day for a series of events.

The leaders were at Shimoni in Lunga-Lunga subcounty.

"During the campaigns, you promised that within the first five years of your leadership, we will get a permanent solution to land disputes, please honour that," Msambweni MP Feisal Bader said.

Governor Fatuma Achani said the number of land disputes has become alarming and thousands of residents are living like squatters on their ancestral land.

"Land injustices are now chronic in Kwale. We are asking for the government to put an end to them," she said.

The governor said many infrastructural projects were commissioned but no funds were allocated to them. 

"The old government played us, they started projects politically and when they realised we were not into handshake they stopped them," Achani said.

They include the Kwale-Kinango road, and Mwachende and Funzi bridges. 

Lunga-Lunga MP Mangale Chiforomodo said the land disputes have hindered development.

He said residents are not settled and are always on the run because of illegal demolitions and evictions.

Chiforomodo said Shimoni is the worst affected by land injustice.

He said the Shimoni land scheme was unfairly divided, with only 40 per cent going to residents and the rest to wealthy people. 

"The few people who got the land, some of them had title deeds whose numbers were mixed up," Chiforomodo said.

He urged the national government to intervene in the division of the land whose leases have expired.

The lawmaker said some of the lands whose leases had expired in Shimoni are blocks 1082, 1083, 1084, 5030 and 5032.

MP Bader said when Ruto took power they knew freedom had come and the 40 days of land grabbers had ended.

Chiforomodo said Ruto should ensure there are no squatters in Kenya. 

Gachagua admitted that land injustices are a major headache in Kenya and the government is working around the clock to address the issue.

He said in the next financial year they will set aside funds to buy land from absentee landlords and give it to citizens. 

"We are aware of what we promised you, and the land issue is a concern of which we intend to buy land in phases from absentee landowners," Gachagua said.

Blue Economy CS, and former governor, Salim Mvurya blamed the Handshake for paralysing the Shimoni port and National Mariculture Centre projects.

"Kwale residents don't like the handshake, it stalled Shimoni port. It had the budget but the handshake took it all," he said.

Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya