10,000 starving Turkana squatters face Baringo eviction

More than 10,000 starving Turkana squatters who fled bandit attacks decades ago to seek refuge in Baringo are now facing forced eviction.

The families were displaced since the 1960s to date by frequent attacks by bandits in the volatile Kapedo, Napeitom, Lokori, Lomelo and Nadome-borders of Baringo and Turkana counties.

“We are currently putting up in temporary slums in Marigat, Mogotio and Eldama-Ravine,” elder Paulo Lowoi told the Star on Wednesday.

The Internally Displaced Persons are facing mass eviction after the government claimed they encroached on public land.

Lowo said they have  nowhere to go after being issued with notices to  vacate their shanties in Kampi Turkana near Marigat town, Perkerra sublocation in Baringo South.

He said the government wants to use the land they occupy to put up a prison, mortuary, cemetery, public social hall and a dumpsite.

Speaking during October 20 Mashujaa celebrations in Marigat, Baringo South MP Charles Kamuren and Woman Representative Gladwell Cheruiyot said the government should create space to put up the public facilities.

Cheruiyo said the entire county doesn’t have a women's prison, forcing the judiciary to transfer female inmates all the way to Eldoret in Uasin Gishu county.

CONFUSED

“We simply don’t have anywhere to run to with our families and children,” Lowoi said.

In June about 5,000 Turkana squatters were evicted from the notorious Mogotio’s Katorong’ot and Landi Mawe slums.

The future is unknown for the Turkanas currently living in Kampi ya Saki, Mochongoi, Sogeri, Eldama-Ravine and Mogotio in Baringo.

“We heard rumours that the government is planning to sweep us up en mass to a secluded area in Nakuru county although we are not certain," Mogotio’s Joseph Tetekori said.

However, Baringo South deputy commissioner Jacob Ochieng said the government has no option but to evict the Turkanas. 

“If they are living on public land, then the law is clear on public utilities. They they have to look for refuge elsewhere,” Ochieng told the Star.

HUNGRY AND SICK

Apart from facing mas eviction, the forgotten bandit victims are starving due to lack of food.

“We are only surviving by the grace of God since the onset of Covid-19 because we no longer find menial jobs and so getting food has been a nightmare,” Lowoi said.

He said they haven’t received relief food supplements since 2007, adding that as squatters they don’t have any farms to cultivate.

Ninety-year-old hungry and ailing Mary Naukot who was asleep on a goat skin  on bare ground in Marigat slum eats only wild fruits known as edung, erut, cactus and mathenge tree pods.

 “Since we have been left to survive on our own, we have lost many of our people to harsh hunger and diseases,” Lowoi said.

He added that they thought they had run away from the jaws of death in their land back in Turkana, “but we have fallen into real hell,” he said.

The frequent Kapedo-Turkana-Baringo attacks are attributed to unresolved boundary disputes and battles over pasture and water resources. People continue to flee volatile areas.

Due to poverty, the jobless Turkana youths have engaged in robbery and prostitution to feed their families.

They said they are occasionally given little bags of maize and beans from the local administrative offices. “A 50kg bag is shared among 100 people and cannot sustain our hunger-stricken families at all,” Mzee Tetekori said.

“We are therefore appealing to the government to supply us with more relief food before our people die of hunger,” he said.

He said however much they struggle to educate their children, they are hardly considered for any public job opportunities in both the county and national governments.

Deputy commissioner Ochieng, however, dismisses claims that hunger  has reached such alarming proportions in his subcounty.

“Although my office has never received any food supplements for the last few months, we keep monitoring the situation and we shall order some if the need arises, " he said.

Residents still have food from their last harvest, Ochieng said.

(Edited by V. Graham)