Residents oppose planned police station to end rustling at Kitui, Tana River border

Residents of Tana River have rejected plans to put up a police station at the county's border with Kitui, claiming it is a scheme to encroach on their land.

On Tuesday, Jibril Farah, the MCA for Bangale in Tana River, led residents in opposing the plans.

While speaking during a public participation meeting, Farah said residents would fight tooth and nail against the setting up of a station at Katumba area.

The meeting was held a few meters from the proposed site.

Representatives of Bangale residents said the project was a ploy to grab land that has been a subject of ownership dispute between Kitui and Tana River counties.

The Katumba police station is among eight modern stations whose construction the county of Kitui is sponsoring in the volatile areas bordering the Tana River county in a bid to stem insecurity.  

The police stations would contain rustling and other conflicts including invasion of farms by herders.

But during the meeting presided over by Tana River commissioner David Kosgey and his Kitui counterpart Kipchumba Rutto, Farah said they had expressed their opposition to President William Ruto.

“I want to praise President Ruto for pledging to put the issue to rest. While with him at State House on Monday, the President called Interior CS Kithure Kindiki and asked him to stop the construction of this police station,” he said.

The MCA added that residents were against the project because, among other things, they were never taken through public participation as required.

Since Ruto had acted to stop the construction, the two county commissioners had no business pursuing a matter that the President had pronounced himself on, he said.

“We have already gone to the top-most slot in this country’s leadership. The planned construction of the police station will never happen in this area. It is a closed chapter.” 

An elder, Mohammed Haron, said the people would use all means to oppose the police station.

He said the border dispute that has been on for over 15 years must be addressed first.

Plans to launch the clearing of the project site on the same day were shelved, to pave way for the security meeting.

But Kitui Chief Officer for Decentralised Units, Stephen Saleh, said there was no ulterior motive in funding the police station project.

He said the project was borne of the "good and noble intention" to seek to end acts of crime and would ultimately benefit both Kitui and Tana River residents if fully implemented.

After consultation with Rutto, the Tana River commissioner said a decision had been reached to suspend the construction.

Kosgey said that would give relevant government departments, including IEBC, time to provide a solution to the border row.

He lauded the Kitui government for providing funds for the police station project in a bid to address insecurity.

Due to the existing border dispute, Kosgei added, the project had to be put on hold as the issue was being resolved.