Squatters at the Teita Sisal Estate, Taita Taveta, have appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to be allowed to settle. The squatters in Majengo village say they have suffered huge losses since the management kicked them out of their ancestral land in 1991 to pave way for a sisal plantation. “In 1991, the sisal management inhumanely uprooted our crops and destroyed the graves of our loved ones. We cannot grow crops or do any business here. They have planted sisal up to our doorsteps,” resident Damaris Nyambu said.
When the Star visited the village on Monday, residents said they might soon die of hunger because they have no food or land to cultivate. Some of the squatters’ houses are falling apart because they are not allowed to put up permanent structures.
“These sisal owners have refused to give back our land. Show me an African who owns a parcel of land in Greece. We want to be free on our land. We want the head of state to intervene and set us free from this suffering,” Elnora Mkala, 86, said.
Mkala said the sisal firm has taken over all public facilities in the area.
“We cannot even fetch water in the dam that was constructed by the government to help us. Our leaders have failed to help us,” she said.
In 2015, the National Assembly recommended that the land be resurveyed so that the excess parcel goes back to the community. A National Assembly report further recommended that the sisal firm compensates residents in Singila and Majengo villages, who were evicted in 1991. “The survey was done and soon the report will be out. However, we are worried because the victims of the evictions are yet to be compensated,” squatter Mnjala Mwaluma said.
Last year, the sisal firm signed an agreement with the Taita Taveta government to have the Singila and Majengo sections hived off to settle hundreds of squatters on the land.
The sisal firm management has said it will give back 200 acres. Taita Taveta Deputy Governor Mary Ndigha on Tuesday said the sisal firm management is still working out how best to address the squatters issue.