Indigenous group despair over land loss

The plight of about 3000 indigenous Kenyans, on the verge of losing their land has come to the fore at the Kenyan WSF.

They claim that they are fast losing their means of survival to internal displacement by American investors. The investors under the Dominion group of companies are reported to have bought off a bigger part of the Yala area of Siala district, west off Kenya, where the people live and earn their bread through farming. The citizens’ economic mainstay is agriculture and fishing, and the successful sale of the land could spell doom for the activities through denial of access to the land for cultivation and the river for fishing.

These facts came to light when a participant in the on-going World Social Forum expressed dismay at the way the Kenyan government was allegedly handling foreign investment issue in the country. Rapudo Hawl a community mobiliser in the ‘Friends of Yala Swamp’ told African Flame that the investors had taken the land and set up a plant for rice growing in Yala river, the district source of Fish farming, without any proper compensation to the dwellers. He alleged that because of the dam built for the activity, the villagers now have to migrate from their homes to other places such as churches or trees whenever it rains as the water in the dam overflows into their homes.

“This is the second year since the government gave them the authority to take the land and government can’t do much about the situation because the politicians have been compromised and they made sure they signed the treaty to pass a law on investment” claimed Hawl. “It has affected their livelihoods because they have been depending on agriculture and fishing, and the company can’t allow them to go near the river or they will be arrested.” He added that the people who did not heed the prohibition order had in the past been arrested and taken to court. He however stated that his organisation was working towards lobbying government to revisit the decision, saying a survey was being conducted to obtain facts about the consequences of the investment decision on the indigenous people. “The survey was done in October and is ready but is not yet in circulation. We need to lobby government because they say there is no evidence to our claims” he added.

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