Hope for Coast squatters as State settlement plan takes off

From left: Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung'aro, Mining and Blue Economy CS Ali Hassan Joho and Senate Speaker Amason Kingi when they met Lands officials from six coastal counties to deliberate on resettlement of squatters, on December 22, 2024. [Nehemiah Okwembah, Standard].

The government resettlement plan for thousands of squatters who have occupied private land for decades has started in the six coastal counties.

Senate Speaker Amason Kingi, Cabinet Secretaries Hassan Joho and Salim Mvurya will spearhead the exercise under President William Ruto’s one-million-acre scheme programme.

Coast leaders resolved that Kingi, Joho, the Mining and Blue Economy CS, and his Sports counterpart, Mvurya will identify the land to be purchased by the State to settle the landless.

On Saturday, leaders from the six coastal counties met to work on a road map of resettling squatters in the area.

The closed-door meeting by the chairman of the Jumuiya Ya Kaunti Za Pwani (JKP) and Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro was held at Ocean Beach Resort in Malindi.

Kingi said the budget to purchase land for squatters was factored in the 2024/2015 fiscal estimates, and it was upon the coastal leaders to identify the parcels of land to be bought.

“The President will not purchase land with underlying issues, and that is why he has sent me, Joho, and Mvurya to sit with the six governors to identify the lands for purchase,” Kingi said.

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He said the lands will be acquired in phases in each financial year, adding that this year there are already funds allocated for the process.

“We have given the counties until December 27 to identify lands where squatters and landowners have constant wrangles. Such parcels will be bought and those squatters settled,” said Kingi.

Kingi stressed that the lands to be given priority are those where squatters are staying there and locals were being harassed by land owners.

“The priority will be those lands where squatters and landowners are in court, and the second priority is land with squatters but which belongs to absentee landlords,” he said.

The identified list of lands will be taken to the Lands Ministry and the President so as to fast-track the process meant to address the squatter problem.

Mung’aro said the governors directed county land officials to begin identifying the land in question and submit the lists on time.

“We have agreed to hold a follow-up meeting next week to pinpoint parcels of land for settlement of the landless, as we seek a lasting solution to the squatter problem,” said Mung’aro.

He warned locals against taking advantage of the process to invade private land and claim they were squatters.

“Let no one invade people’s lands because they have heard that the government will purchase them,” he said.

During the campaigns, President William Ruto promised to buy swathes of land to settle squatters.

The President said that Sh1 billion had been set aside in the 2023/2024 budget to buy the disputed parcels, like the 86.7-acre Kwa Bulo Farm in Nyali to settle the 10,000-odd squatters.

All the six counties on the Coast are teeming with hundreds of thousands. In Mombasa, about 15,000 families face eviction after disagreeing with landowners.

Governor Issa Timammy of Lamu and Taita Taveta’s Andrew Mwadime attended the meeting while Kwale Governor Fatuma Achani, Tana River’s Dhadho Godhana and Mombasa’s Abdulswamad Sharif Nassir sent representatives.