A lawyer has told community members in Kwa Vonza ward in Kitui Rural that they had no legal justification to lay ownership claim to a stone crusher installed in the area by the Kitui government.
Lawyer Amos Kisilu who hails from the area said any claim of ownership by any resident of Kwa Kilui village where the multimillion shilling stone crusher was located or the residents of the larger Kwa Vonza ward was invalid.
Kisilu had offered expert advice when he attended a community sacco meeting on Saturday, where speaker after speaker expressed displeasure that the ownership of the about Sh40 million stone crusher had allegedly stealthily changed hands from the community sacco to the County Government of Kitui.
At the meeting that was convened by the Community Sacco chairman, Peter Kimaile, and attended by area MP Bonny Mwalika, Mwalika’s predecessor Charles Nyamai and area MCA John Kisangau, the community members said they have been disenfranchised.
“I am not a politician and neither do I play politics. I want to give you facts on the ownership of this crusher. It is the county government of Kitui that bought the crusher. It has its log book and facilitated its installation. It is thus the legal owner of the crusher,” said the lawyer.
He told the community members the only thing they clutched, was the political ownership of the machinery considering that politician had promised to hand over ownership to the community Sacco. He said real and legal ownership was vested on the county government of Kitui.
“You can still own this stone crusher if you sweet talk the county government to hand over its ownership to the community sacco. You will then have to fundraise up to Sh. 100 million to compensate the County government for the expenses it had incurred on the same,” Kisilu said.
