By Reporter
6,000 Kwasasi farmers have called on the National Land Commission to intervene in resolving allegations that they may have lost at least 70,000 acres of their land to the LAPSSET project.
According to Kwasasi Farmers Association member official Hussein Mirji, the farmers are worried that despite an agreement with the LAPSSET Corridor Development Authority that only 300 acres will be hived off for development, 70,000 acres was secretly hived off and titled to the LAPSSET project.
He further noted that despite assurances that those who lost their land to the LAPSSET project for which the Chinese Communication Construction Company has already built the Lamu Port and is currently undertaking the construction of the 250 Kilometer Road.
βPart of where the Lamu-Garissa road is being built has been hived off from the Kwasasi area without proper consultation from the communities affected and thus a need for all parties both from the national and county government to get involved and resolve the land grab that the Kwasasi farmers have undergone,β Mirji said.
Sentiments echoed by Save Lamu Secretary General Mohammed Athman who lamented over the continued marginalization and disenfranchising of minority communities within the county.
He further said that Save Lamu in conjunction with the Kwasasi Farmers Association will be collaborating in forcing the national government to provide land compensation for those affected especially with the ongoing expansion of the Camp Simba American military base, which he added has encroached into the Kwasasi farmers land.
βThere needs to be an urgent sitdown between the affected parties especially now that the Kwasasi land apart from being taken over by LAPSSET is also now being taken over by military installations at the expense of the true land owners,β Muhsin Mohammed, a Kwasasi farmer said.
She further added that the ongoing encroachment is being done under the guise of national development and urged that fairness should take precedence.
LCDA CEO Simon Ikua on his part who spoke to the media via a telephone interview stated that the national government remains keen on ensuring that those affected by the LAPSSET project will in due time be compensated.
βThe NLC are fully behind the process of compensating the affected farmers despite the delays in addressing the matter, however genuine land owners need to be established first and foremost and not merely squatters trying to force their way to compensation,β Ikua added.
