Members of the Isahakia community in Naivasha are crying foul over failed resettlement by the government decades after arriving in the country as porters.
They have accused the National Land Commission of failing to adhere to a directive by the Head of State five years ago to resettle them within seven months.
Instead, the community, which is the oldest in Naivasha, has been left suffering as land allocated to them by the colonial government continues to be sub-divided by influential individuals.
The community, which acted as porters for Lord Delamere, has pointed an accusing finger at some of the NLC officials for their suffering and called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene.
Speaking at one of the parcels of land that they lay claim to on Wednesday, community leader Ahmed Ali Faarah said they had been taken in circles by the land commission.
An emotional Faarah said that community members were dying every year as they continued waiting to be resettled by the state.
“Officials from the National Land Commission have on various occasions moved in to survey our ancestral land and we are yet to hear from them,” he said.
He added that the community has agreed to hand over sections of the land to the Prisons and Dairy Training Institute with the promise that they would be resettled on the remaining parcels.
“Our forefathers arrived in the country back in 1867 and to date we have never been resettled as influential people continue to grab our land,” he said.
One of the women leaders, Sarah Ishamael, narrated how the President directed the late PS for Land Mariam El-Maawy to facilitate their resettlement.
She noted that this had not been fulfilled, leading to their suffering as tens of acres which they received from the colonial government continued to be grabbed.
“We are asking the President to intervene as we feel that there are some people in NLC who are opposed to our resettlement,” she said.
Ishamael added that they were tired of waiting as the NLC takes them in circles whenever they visit their offices demanding justice.
Youth leader Ali Mohammed noted that tens of their parents had died as they chased elusive justice, leaving their children to follow up on the matter.
He termed land as a very sensitive and emotive issue, adding that they were ready to seek a peaceful solution with NLC on the land earmarked for their resettlement.
“We have colonial documents proving that these parcels of land belong to our great grandparents and we are wondering who has issued the ownership documents to the current owners,” he said.
Edited by Henry Makori
