Is Sabaot land defence force militia regrouping in Mt Elgon?

Bungoma County Commissioner addressing the press on 23/2/2015 at Kanduyi Red Cross hall in Bungoma town. He has refuted claims of regrouping of the Sabaot Land Defense Force. (PHOTO:TITUS OTEBA/STANDARD)

There is no hope that internally displaced residents of Mt Elgon will ever be resettled 44 years since the government began the exercise to give them land.

Trouble flared up in Mount Elgon in August 2006 when a section of residents formed the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF), a militia that visited terror and fear on women, men and children.

The SLDF started out by asking for a “fair” allocation of land, claiming the previous land allocation scheme by the government excluded genuine squatters.

The provincial administration and a section of leaders at the time accused some local politicians and their counterparts from Rift Valley for funding the terror gang.

Although it was crashed by the military in 2008 under an operation dubbed ‘Okoa Maisha’ with its ring leader Wycliffe Matwakei shot dead, the reasons that led to the chaos are yet to be resolved.

Bitter memories

Scars and bitter memories created by the brutal military operation, which led to many young people fleeing their homes, are still fresh despite efforts to rehabilitate former SDLF recruits.

The government has assured residents of the volatile region that the armed militia that terrorised families between 2006 to 2008 cannot regroup, citing the presence of the permanent Kenya Army base in the region.

But any incident of killings brings back those unwanted memories.

In a tour of the region recently, The Standard on Sunday established that the delay to resettle people and lack of title deeds continue fueling animosity and tension.

Bungoma County Commissioner Maalim Mohamed, however, dismissed such fears and assured the public that the matter will be resolved soon.

“The SLDF will not regroup. People should stop spreading rumours that the militia is back,” Maalim said at Kopsiro in Mt Elgon.

But area MP John Serut, who lost a brother and other family members to SDLF gun attacks, and also raised concerns about his own safety at the time, thinks otherwise.

“I do not see the government settling people any time soon. First of all, where is the land?” Serut asked.

“When Chepyuk settlement scheme was created by the government in 1971, there were only 609 people to be settled on the land. Today the population matrix has changed. Due to delays, most of those who were supposed to be settled are dead and buried.”

Today, 44 years later, there are more than 160,000 people living in Mt Elgon. The population is multi- ethnic, yet dominated by the Sabaot which accounts for 60 per cent of the district’s population.

The Sabaot is divided into two sub tribes: the Soy (also called the Chemwek) and the Mosop (also called the Ndorobo) who traditionally lived in the thick forests of Mt Elgon and were hunters and gatherers.

In the mid 1960s, the government established the idea of a resettlement plan for the Mosop. “The scheme was to settle the Ndorobo and not their sisters and brothers living in settlements outside the forest. But some local leaders took advantage and allocated themselves chunks of land,” says Serut.

Today every member of the community wants land, creating a major headache for the national government and causing confusion in the process.

Revenge attacks

Pledging to push the government to settle people, the MP sounded frustrated by lack of a quick fix to the problem which he warns may give rise to continued tension and confusion that has characterised the region since independence.

If recent killings in the region are anything to go by, Mt Elgon looks calm from the surface but is a ticking time bomb underneath.

Cases of revenge attacks against SLDF remnants are on the rise in Kopsiro division, but the police are quick to dismiss them as thuggery. Bungoma County Police Commander Charles Mutinda dismissed the assertion that remnants of SLDF could be back.

“We crushed the ragtag militia and I don’t believe they can regroup. What is happening is thuggery and nothing else,” said Mutinda.

His comments followed the killing of a man two months ago by unknown people in Toywondet village, Kopsiro division.

The man is believed to have masterminded the killing and maiming of many residents at the height of the SLDF insurgency. He is said to have been one of the militia’s die hard supporters and was alleged to have killed his close relatives in Chepkurkur area, Emia location, with the aim of forcefully grabbing their land but fled to Uganda after his mission aborted with the entry of the military in 2008.

The deceased’s close relatives said he returned to the country, trained as a nursery teacher and secured employment with the Bungoma County Government but was ambushed and killed by people believed to be his close relatives.

Last November, police in Kopsiro arrested a man and recovered a homemade gun.

Chepyuk Ward MCA Enock Ndiema says residents have not been able to develop their lands for fear of losing their investments for lack of title deeds.

“We want the government to de-gazette Chepyuk phase 1 and 2 so that residents can be settled in the five acres they were allocated by the Solomon Ouko led taskforce in 2009. We now have the land but lack title deeds to make us genuine owners,” he said.

Cheptais division peace chairman Richard Sangula said the government needs to handle the Mt Elgon situation with care to avoid the repeat of the skirmishes that rocked the region in 2006.

“SLDF was borne out of skewed division of land in the controversial Chepyuk settlement scheme. Let the government come in and give residents title deeds so that they can also feel honoured and be genuine land owners,” said Sangula.