Bloodshed Looms Over Access Road Dispute, Residents Call For Fast Government Intervention.
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| A section of Mutoho residents clearing land for the disputed access road. |
Wednesday morning, youth who had been contracted to clear
the path, had to run for their dear lives after they were confronted with
pangas by the family members who denied them any access to clear the area. Within
a short while, the members of public joined into the fray and dared the family for
a fight.
The standoff was quelled by the area chief who stopped any
further clearance until this matter was amicably solved. Otherwise, the
residents vowed that they would take the law into their hands and forcefully
clear the road, with the family standing their ground that this would only
happen over their dead bodies.
The residents say that their action to forcefully reclaim
the road is in reaction to an alleged breach of their rights by the affected
family who claims that the road doesn’t entirely pass through their land.
According to 80-year old Peter Njihia Kamau who claims to be
one of the people who were involved in the demarcation of land in 1964, there
existed an access road that linked the now Kigumo and Kandara Constituencies
but was later fenced off by the family thus denying further usage.
Njihia claimed that
even after so many calls for intervention, the area leadership had for more
than ten years failed to come up with a solution to the impasse, a wrangle that
at one time had seen him get attacked by the family.
“This road was
originally set aside in 1964 to link Turuturu Village and Thagari Village in
Kandara. Unfortunately, the owners of this piece of land sealed it off from the
public and hived a small path at the edge of their shamba that the public use t
the river. The path is too small and very steep to be used by anyone with a luggage.
Immediately after independence, we used this particular route to access the
stream down there and to water our livestock,” said Njihia.
He says that the road was very essential to them as it was
the easiest route to access all the neighbouring centres of Kagundu-ini,
Gaichajiru Mission Hospital, Kariua and Kandara. He claims that the residents
have been undergoing untold suffering as they are forced to walk for more than
10 kilometers to the neighbouring centres, majority of them being merely less
than a kilometer away.
“Currently we are forced to pay sh. 150 to go to Kariua or
Thagari, a distance that would have otherwise taken us just 20 minutes to walk.
We are therefore appealing to His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene
on our behalf and help is access the road,” he added.
These sentiments were supported by James Maina Muthee, a
resident of the area who added that after an outcry by the residents, they
mobilised the youth to clear the road. According to him, they had contracted
the services of several surveyors whose results came to the same conclusion. He
also claims that the families in dispute had previously been requested to
contract a surveyor of their choice so that this dispute would be settled once
and for all but they were yet to do so.
Maina says that the bone of contention may have emanated
from a family disagreement after it emerged that it had only passed through one
of the families land.
“This road was allocated before the original owner, who is
the father to the aggrieved family, had subdivided his land amongst his
children. He had two wives and each one of them had sons. So, when he finally
sub-divided his land amongst them, the family of the first wife now feel
cheated after the access road only cuts through their section of the land. They
are now demanding that it cuts across the entire three homestead,” said Maina.
In response, the over 90-year old widow, who is the only
surviving member of the original land owners, claims that disputes these argument
saying that the road was originally marked to cut through the three homesteads
as opposed to what the residents were claiming. She says that those who
re-routed it to only cut through her part of the land, did so with the intention
to grab her only piece of land.
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| Mungai shows the press that part of the road that is said to have miscellaneously diverted to deny them justice. (Inset: their 90+ year old mother. |
“Whoever re-routed this road must have conspired to grab my
part of the land. What right is there to target only my house for demolition
and not those of my late co-wife’s sons? I am only appealing, as your great
grandmother, for justice as this is not right. I have no objection but I only pray
that this dispute will be resolved amicably and that only justice will prevail,”
she posed.
She claims to have been the one who took care of the entire
family after the demise of her husband and co-wife, thus she bore first-hand
information about the whole scenario. She added that logic had it that no road
ever went straight against the slope.
Her son, Mungai Njoroge, said that they have been into several
disputes with his step-brothers in relation to this road. He clarified that his
family had no objection to the road passing through part of their land as this
was what was originally the case. Their objection was with the re-routing that,
according to him, was choreographed to suit certain interests.
He is now calling for an independent surveyor, preferably
from the government, to re-look into the issue.
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