Wetland grabbers in Kisumu have been given notice to vacate the area.
The encroachers have been told their structures will be brought down and activities stopped in order to conserve the area.
Some of the wetlands include Ombeyi, Nyando, Dunga, Kusa and Namthoi.
Kisumu manger Abala Wanga said the wetlands play a huge role in the society.
They act as fish breeding grounds, water purifiers, carbon filters, source of different materials, water storage and food control.
Wanga spoke on Wednesday during the commemoration of World Wetlands day at Dunga beach.
He said Dunga beach faces a lot of challenges including but not limited to water pollution from the city and surrounding slums, encroachment, overharvesting of papyrus, cattle grazing and overfishing.
Wanga said land grabbers in Kisumu have made sure that they grab anything that they can find.
However, he said, Governor Anyang Nyong’o’s administration is on a mission to ensure that all grabbed land in the county including wetlands are recovered.
The manager said the exercise will beginning soon and urged encroachers to start pulling down their buildings.
Wanga said encroachment into the wetlands was rampant and it is unfortunate that some people even had title deeds for the said land.
“I want to tell the lands department or Lands ministry or whoever they are that they should stop issuing land documents on wetlands,” he said.
The manager said they have agreed with the office of the governor that people undertaking activities or having buildings in the wetland should stop because its a conservation area.
“This is the third notice we are going to issue. Once the county government does approvals on the wetlands and we gazette them, whether you have a storey building in there, we will bring it down to conserve this area,” he added.
Environmentalist Michael Nyanguti says there is a lot of human conflict within the wetlands particularly encroachment around Lake Victoria.
Nyanguti, who is also the Magnum Environmental Network boss said this is a problem that needs to be done away with.
“I urge the the county government to ensure that before approvals for any development is done along the lake's shoreline, it should be within the dressing of the Environmental Management and Conservation Act.
The act allows for a riparian area that needs not to be touched and dictates the kind of developments that can be done around the wetlands.
“We are interested in this because it will enable wildlife to come out and also rest.
"We have been having a lot of human-wildlife conflict in terms of hippos coming out and crocodiles attacking people simply because they don’t have their space,” Nyanguti said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
