• The residents of the three wards that border Isiolo town said they have been agitating for title deeds for decades.
• Members of the Meru community in Isiolo also want the adjudication to proceed.
Wabera, Bulapesa and Burat residents have accused the five Isiolo legislators of attempting to block land adjudication and deny them ownership documents.
The residents of the three wards that border Isiolo town said they have been agitating for title deeds for decades.
They claimed Senators Fatuma Dullo and Abshiro Halake (nominated), Woman Representative Rehema Jaldesa, Isiolo North MP Hassan Odha and his Isiolo South counterpart Abdi Koropu have been putting pressure on Lands CS Farida Karoney to revoke an August gazette notice declaring Isiolo county an adjudication area.
The five, who the complainants refer to as "the Pentagon" want the entire process done afresh in accordance with the Community Land Act and the involvement of the public.
“We want to grow our businesses and take loans in banks by using them as collateral to access credit facilities to finance development projects on our land,” Bulapesa ward MCA Idd Hassan Kimathi said.
He asked Karoney to proceed with the land adjudication and ignore the legislators.
Kimathi accused them of misleading the locals that their grazing land would be grabbed should the adjudication process take place.
Land is an emotive subject in Isiolo. While landowners in settlement areas demand land ownership documents, pastoralists are worried that adjudication will interfere with their grazing areas.
Members of the Meru community in Isiolo also want the adjudication to proceed.
Elders Elijah Mugambi and Salesio Kiambi asked Karoney not to be distracted by politicians.
Mugambi said," As a community, we are in support of the calls to have the size and location of the parcels of land claimed by the military specified in the gazette notice to cushion locals from later losing their land. That can be done through an amendment of the notice instead of cancelling it."
The national government is set to issue over 6,000 title deeds in Isiolo town, Merti, Garbatulla, Kinna, Sericho, Ngaremara and Oldonyiro.
Community youth leaders Samson Mwiti and Hellen Makena called for faster resolution of the matter for land adjudication to proceed.