NAIROBI: PRIME MINISTER RAILA ODINGA MEETS MAASAI ELDERS

PMPS 29th August 2011.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga has directed the Ministry of Lands to investigate how a public land that Maasai herdsmen temporarily handed over to the government for livestock development changed hands and became a private property of few individuals.
He ordered the Ministry of Lands to recover the land and revert it to the Maasai community if it is established that the land was acquired illegally by individuals.
Odinga said the disputed land, measuring 2,912 acres attracted private developers after the purpose for which the herdsmen had donated it to the government expired.
The PM was speaking at his offices when he hosted elders from the community who presented him with a memorandum protesting against allocation and forceful eviction of locals from the disputed land.
The elders said the land was meant to hold Sheep and Goat for slaughter at the Kenya Meat Commission.
The then Ministry of Livestock Marketing Department initiated the sheep and goat multiplication project, paddocked the land and fenced it, thereby displacing the community in the process.
The elders’ delegation presented the memorandum on behalf of the Kitengela Ilparakuo Land Owners Association.
According to the elders, the Sheep and Goat Multiplication Project stalled in the late 1980s and the land was surrendered back to the government and the community was allowed to continue living on it.
They said a small portion measuring about 101.2 hectares was excised from the land and transferred to a private company without the knowledge of the initial owners, although the company purported to represent the Maasai community.
They petitioned the government to authorize a survey on the land to establish all its boundaries, adding that the community was willing and able to meet the cost of such survey.
The PM said land remains a thorny issue that the new constitution plans to address comprehensively, adding that some cases of grabbing were obvious and could be dealt with immediately.
At the same time, the PM asked the Maasai community to start shopping for credible female politicians who could take up the special slots for women under the new constitution.
He told the elders that new constitution allocates a specific number of seats that must be occupied by women.
“Women interested in politics of 2012 should start taking up their places ahead of the polls, and you have a duty to support them to fill the slots that the constitution grants them,” the PM said.
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