By OSINDE OBARE

A row is simmering between Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi’s family and 17 families over ownership of a 100-acre piece of land in Trans-Nzoia County.

The families accuse the DPM’s family of fraudulently acquiring the land at Kapkoi in Kwanza District and planning to evict them.

The disputed land under Settlement Fund Trust was allocated to former minister, the late Francis Lotodo who sold it to Musalia’s father Moses Mudavadi.

The families now claim that the late Lotodo sold them the land before the same was acquired by the Mudavadi family, which is planning to sell it to the Government for the resettlement of IDPs.

Tension was high at the farm when Kwanza District Commissioner Gabriel Risie accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Special Programmes toured the land for the anticipated purchase.

Justus Wekesa, the spokesperson of the families, said the more than 60 people settled on the land in 1985 after they entered into a sale agreement with Lotodo.

 “Our fathers acquired the land from the late Lotodo after paying some money and we don’t know how the Mudavadi family went ahead to purchase the same,” said Wekesa.

Wekesa accused Mudavadi of failing to resolve the dispute despite making several pledges in the past ten years.

The DPM, Wekesa claimed, had agreed to have the land divided into two parcels and shared by the Mudavadis and the families.

The families have since threatened to sue the DPM and three other members of his family: the DPM’s mother Hannah Asyangale, Rosebell Jerono (stepmother) and Geoffrey Kegode (stepbrother).

An official search from the Ministry of Lands and obtained by The Standard shows Mudavadi, Asyangale, Jerono and Kegode are the registered owners of the land.

At the same time, the Mudavadi family has disowned the families. “We wish to advise that your clients are complete strangers to our clients. We wish to confirm for the avoidance of doubt, our clients are the registered owners of the parcel of land,” lawyer Andrew Musangi, representing the DPM wrote back to the families.

Musangi was categorical that his clients, the Mudavadis, would not surrender the land title deed in promises alluded to by the families.