• Two communities that share livestock water and grass on the Kajiado-Makueni border have each laid claim on the disputed land.
• Makueni county commissioner Maalim Mohamed says the clashes are fuelled by shortage of grass and water.
Five people have been killed and many others injured since the conflict between two communities started in Mikululo area along the border between Kajiado and Makueni counties.
The bloodletting frictions that were first reported on July 22 last year have persisted as the two communities that share water and pastures on the border lay claim to the disputed land.
There have been raids and cattle thefts, further fuelling the conflict.
Members of the two communities are now pointing an accusing finger at the government and interested officials.
There are claims some influential government officials are eyeing the land, thus said to be behind the clashes.
“What is delaying this government from taking action? It has all the documents showing the boundary between Kajiado and Makueni,”Jacob ole Nkananai from Olorien says.
Makueni county commissioner Mohamed Maalim, however, says the clashes are fuelled by shortage of pasture and water, which the two communities share.
THE GENESIS
The Kajiado community, which is mainly constituted of the Maasai, is bitter that their neighbours, the Kambas from Makueni, sued the Kenya Wildlife Service over the Mikululo land in 1995 without involving them.
Court documents show the suit started through a complaint in 1995 by Mikululo Ranching Co Limited. The complaint was then amended on June 29, 2000.
In the amended complaint, Mikululo Ranching Co Limited averred that in or about 1975, a number of people started grazing and farming in what is now known as the Mikululo area.
The documents show that in 1982, the said individuals incorporated the complainant’s company, and that its members had occupied the 42,000 acres in Mikululo.
In the suit that started in 2009, the Kamba community sought to stop KWS from claiming part of the Mikululo Ranch, which was already being occupied by their neighbours from Kajiado.
The community had sued the then Makueni district commissioner, Attorney General, KWS, and Makueni County Council for playing part in the attempts to take over the said land.
Mikululo Ranching Co Limited argued that the area that its members occupied was trust land that was initially under the Masaku County Council and later Makueni County Council.
Mikululo members further claimed that Makueni DC allowed them to occupy the 42,000 acres of the area, which they were already utilising.
Through a gazette notice dated May 2, 1995, they said, the KWS extended their area of jurisdiction by 76.0 square kilometers, which includes the 42,000 acres that Mikululo Ranching Co Limited members occupied.
The complainant in the case says after KWS illegally extended its area of jurisdiction, it started demolishing their homes and burnt their farm produce.
ATTEMPT TO BLOCK KWS
Mikululo Ranching Co Limited sought an order of permanent injunction restraining the defendants from evicting its members.
In their defence, Makueni DC and the AG said the Makueni Development Committee allowed the complainant to settle on the parcel that was approximately 3,845 ha (9,501).
They added that the same squatters encroached on Chyulu National Park and were given notices to vacate.
In a ruling dated February 22, 2019 and delivered in Machakos by Justice O. A Angote ordered a permanent injunction restraining KWS and Makueni county government from evicting the ranchers in Mikululo.
Angote stopped the eviction of the plaintiff (Mikululo Ranch) and its members, families, servants, and/or agents from the land measuring 17,326 ha (42813.4784 acres).
He said the grant for L.R. No. 24362 for land measuring 73,427ha be revoked, and in its place, a grant is issued to KWS as depicted in boundary plan number 204/51 gazetted on January 26, 1983. KWS was ordered to pay the cost of the suit.
This is where the Kajiado-Maasai question came in.
The Kajiado community that had been grazing in the area was not aware of any ongoing court case in Machakos until July 2019.
Their spokesman, Jacob Nkananai, says the land the Makueni community is now calling Mikululo is in essence known by the name Olorien.
Image: KURGAT MARINDANY
He says that after the KWS was given the land, they also suffered immensely after the police and KWS wardens burnt their houses and evicted them from the area they called home since the early 1920s.
“We have been living here from as early as 1923. We started seeing the Kamba people in the mid-1940s when they started grazing their goats here," Nkananai claims.
Nkananai he also alleged that the Kambas hijacked the case against the KWS and refused to incorporate them, despite knowing the land was theirs.
THE MAASAI INVASION
Peter Muthiani, a member of the Mikululo Ranch, says the Kajiado community has invaded Makueni county and is now attacking their people.
“We allowed these people to graze their livestock in Mikululo in the 1940s. We lived amicably with them for many years before July 2019, when they started stealing our livestock,” Muthiani claims.
The provincial administration from Makueni and Kajiado are aware of the ongouing clashes in Mikululo and where the Maasai call Olorien.
Those on the ground maintain some people in government and politicians have laid claim to the Mikululo land.
"We are also aware that there are senior people in government who own thousands of acres in the same land. If the matter is resolved, they may lose that land," a local who did not want to be named said.
“The government must be informed of where its provincial boundaries lie. Every time people are killed, you find county commissioners pretending to be talking tough. Let them end these bloody clashes now,” added another local.
The latest attack happened on Sunday, July 5, when two people were murdered.
This was just a day after another attack after which Maalim warned the people causing mayhem that they would be brought to book.
“I have ordered two patrols to be mounted in the area, and I have also instructed the DCI from Makueni and Kajiado to get to the bottom of this issue,” Maalim said
He also noted that chiefs on both sides were aware of the developments.
"They know when these raids are planned," Maalim said.
Before the last two raids happened, some residents of Kajiado had accused a senior national administration official serving in the county of being “bought” to “protect” the Kambas.
They claimed those in the Interior Ministry have vested interests in the land and do not want the squabbles on the ground to end.
Kajiado county commissioner Joshua Nkanatha says he is working from his end to understand the history of the problem.
“Land and boundary disputes are sensitive. They require precision because if it is handled recklessly, it may blow out of proportion and it will cause loss of lives,” Nkanatha said.
Nkanatha is, however, upbeat that the matter will end soon.
CRIMINALS
Maalim however insists that those fighting and carrying out rustling are “purely criminals” and should be treated like so.
But the concerned communities have a different view of each other. Each side thinks the other side is being protected by the government.
Edited by EKibii