Some 3,000 residents of Maji ya Chumvi in Kinango, Kwale county, are living on the edge after a private investor emerged claiming their 250 acres.
Tension is rising in the area as the claimant threatens to kick out the residents.
The residents have sought the help of Coast regional coordinator John Elungata who has promised to address the matter.
Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council chairman Sheikh Juma Ngao accompanied representatives of the residents to Elungata’s office on Friday to register their complaints.
They say the private investor has acquired a title deed which they suspect is fake and has been sending goons to harass to eject them from the land.
Mdzomba Nyawa, a resident, said he has been living on the land since 1954 when he was born.
“Today, someone comes from Mogadishu and says I should leave the land because it is his? How is that possible?” Nyawa asked.
Village elder Albert Tsuma said they have repelled attacks from hired goons attempting to torch their houses.
“They come with pangas, rungus and petrol and our children have always been forced to defend us. Sometimes we don’t sleep in our houses,” Tsuma said.
Sheikh Ngao said the government in 2014 started surveying the land and subdivided it to the residents.
“The government issued a 60-day period for anyone with any complaints about the process to raise it. Nobody did until the titles were prepared,” he said.
He said MP Benjamin Tayari has stopped the issuance of titles.
On Sunday, Tayari told the Star the whole process of surveying and adjudication was flawed.
He said the area deputy county commissioner and the assistant county commissioner were not involved.
On February 27, Tayari posed a question in Parliament seeking an explanation from Lands CS Farida Karoney on how the whole adjudication process was done.
He also sought answers to why the title deed for Kinango/Maji ya Chumvi//Plot No. 2 has not been returned to the Registrar of lands as requested, saying it was acquired irregularly.
Karoney on May 9 told Parliament the the government was reviewing the adjudication process with a view to correcting any anomalies.
“This process should be completed by the end of September 2019,” the CS said, adding that any officer found to have contravened the law will be punished.
Tayari said a former politician is behind the saga.
He said the politician sold the land to a private developer who is now demanding his money back after discovering he was duped.
“The politician is the one pushing for all this noise in an effort to cover his behind,” Tayari said.
The duped investor is holding the title for Plot No. 2, Tayari said.
“According to the law, adjudication is only for residents. But for the investor, it was done under the name of his company. That is already a failure. The whole process was irregular.”
