Residents of Magarini in Kilifi County want the government to help them acquire large parcels of land allegedly owned by tycoons.
They claimed on Saturday that the tycoons had started threatening to evict them from places where they have lived for years.
Area MP Michael Kingi intervened through county National Lands Commission Coordinator Umi Kugula after one of the rich people started
fencing off a 38.3-acre piece of land in Kaembeni area, causing panic.
At the meeting, residents noted they had nowhere to go and warned that violence will erupt if authorities do not take action.
It emerged that
many other parcels of land are owned by absentee landlords and that those living on them do not have ownership documents.
Majority of the squatters said they had tried for years to get the documents.
The NLC coordinator advised them to write a letter requesting the commission to help them acquire the land from the tycoon.
Speaking during a meeting at Kaembeni PEFA church, Kugula said most of the land in Magarini and other parts of Kilifi is owned
by absentee landlords, many of them from Zanzibar.
“There are many challenges in Kilifi. For instance, land is divided into three categories - private, pubic and government - but residents do not know this. They only know the plot numbers," she added.
The MP said he convened the meeting to learn the history of the land owned by the tycoon.
He said the acquisition process will begin after the people
write the letter.
Kingi further said that the process will be followed for all disputed pieces of land and locals helped to get titles.
“I don’t want locals evicted. The government needs to facilitate the acquisition of the land so that people get ownership documents," he said.
"If the government acquired Waitiki land and others on behalf of locals, it should do the same in Magarini."
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Magarini MCA Elina Mbaru said locals were suffering as they were being intimidated by the tycoon. She said they walk long distances to fetch water as fencing is going on.
In March, a
family of 50 people in Rabai, Kilifi, spent a night in the cold
after an Arab tycoon demolished their 18 houses that sat on a disputed piece of land.
Local leaders led by Rabai Kisurutini
MCA Mae Mwadena termed the action inhumane and noted the victims were poor and unable to respond in equal measure.