BY
ADOW JUBAT
A Member of Parliament from Tana River County has sensational
claimed at the weekend that seven (7) influential people were involved in a dangerous
plot to grab 100,000 hectares of community land in Tana-river County, coastal
region.
The MP who spoke a day after parliamentary committee
on environment and natural resources, visited the County to take complaints from
the local residents said some powerful individuals using state agents (Kenya
Forest Services) want to swindle the communities of their ancestral community
lands through gazzettments of the same as a forest.
Hassan Dukicha, a Member of Parliament for Galole
constituency, without revealing the names of those whom he accusing of grabbing
that land that threats to the eviction of over 60,000 families from Bangale and
Madogo areas of Bura constituency said he has watertight evidence of a plot
being hatched to silently annex the huge chunk of the community land, gazette
it as forested area without following the due process and later sub-divided
with intention of selling to private developers from outside the area.
On Friday the parliamentary committee on Environment and natural Resources led by its chairperson Samuel Ndiritu visited affected areas of Bangale and Madogo to take the views of residents who has been complaining over the move since the matter came to the fore two months ago.
“We don’t even have to blame the Kenya Forest Services (KFS) officials since they are just implementing a policy of powerful individuals on a land expansive mission by dangerous people with ill and political intention to further marginalize Tana-River communities already neglected by successive governments for decades,” The visibly furious MP lamented.
He said their main intention was to get rid of pastoralists and force them out and in return acquire their land for other purposes only beneficial to the land grabbers curtails.
Dukicha who is a member of the committee was on Friday several stopped by the committee’s Chair Samuel Ndiritu from commenting on the issue since he was an interested party on the matter under probe by the parliamentary committee.
On Friday the parliamentary committee on Environment and natural Resources led by its chairperson Samuel Ndiritu visited affected areas of Bangale and Madogo to take the views of residents who has been complaining over the move since the matter came to the fore two months ago.
“We don’t even have to blame the Kenya Forest Services (KFS) officials since they are just implementing a policy of powerful individuals on a land expansive mission by dangerous people with ill and political intention to further marginalize Tana-River communities already neglected by successive governments for decades,” The visibly furious MP lamented.
He said their main intention was to get rid of pastoralists and force them out and in return acquire their land for other purposes only beneficial to the land grabbers curtails.
Dukicha who is a member of the committee was on Friday several stopped by the committee’s Chair Samuel Ndiritu from commenting on the issue since he was an interested party on the matter under probe by the parliamentary committee.
The Galole MP restrained himself to wade into the
issue during the committee session before later making his statement on the controversy
surrounding the land saga, while addressing members of the public who came to
raise their voices over their fears of disruption of nomadic livelihood in case
the land, which they use for grazing is declared a forest.
The legislature said he will rather resign from the parliamentary committee on environment and natural resources, than being gagged from speaking on the issue which is a stab on the back of his people livelihood by his membership in the committee noting that he was elected to speak for his people.
“I will
always speak on behalf of the people whom I represent; if they didn’t elected
me would I be sitting in this committee of environment,” said the charged Galole
lawmaker.
He claimed the seven individual wanted to gazette the land as forest so that people are forced to become squatters and finally pushed to shift to far-flung areas which are inhabitable.
The mp said he was optimistic the visit by the parliamentary committee, which heard the concerns of the local communities, will provide amicable solution to the saga.
He claimed the seven individual wanted to gazette the land as forest so that people are forced to become squatters and finally pushed to shift to far-flung areas which are inhabitable.
The mp said he was optimistic the visit by the parliamentary committee, which heard the concerns of the local communities, will provide amicable solution to the saga.
No comments:
Post a Comment