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Garissa residents want 'politically-connected' barred from Bula Towfiq

They are worried by the political elites' growing appetite for communal land in the area

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by STEPHEN ASTARIKO

Counties01 December 2020 - 18:00
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In Summary


  • • A politically-connected resident is erecting a perimeter wall around the 500-acre property in the outskirts of Garissa town.
  • • Galbeth ward MCA Abdirizak Ismail warns the political class not to use its influence to create animosity among communities that have coexisted for years.
Residents of Bula Towfiq in Garissa demonstrating on Tuesday.

Bula Towfiq residents have appealed to both the national and county governments to stop a politically-connected individual from developing a "grabbed" piece of land in the area.

They say they will use all means possible, including courts, to stop the grabbing of the land meant for the vulnerable and the "real owners".

Already, a perimeter wall is under construction around the 500-acre property in the outskirts on Garissa town. The property is guarded by armed police officers.

 

On Tuesday, the residents decried what they described as powerful personalities' growing appetite for communal land in the outskirts of Garissa town.

Galbeth ward MCA  Abdirizak Ismail said elderly residents who have lived in the area for the last 80 years are threatened with eviction.

Ismail asked the political class to stop using their influence to create animosity among communities that have coexisted for many years.

On Mashujaa Day, Governor Ali Korane issued an eviction notice to those who had encroached on Ring Road in Garissa town.

The notice demanded that those who had erected illegal structures demolish them.

The governor warned that anybody who defied the notice would be removed forcefully.

"After the expiry of the notice, my administration will also come up with an elaborate programme to plan and allocate land to all deserving cases," he said.

 

He said there was enough land for everyone except greedy land speculators.

Korane said land grabbing in Garissa town and its environs had resulted in bloody conflicts, deaths and destruction of property.

Last month, two people were killed over land ownership in the town.

The governor lamented that land grabbing continues despite warnings from both county and national government officials and the formation of a team to look into land issues last year.

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