This just up in today’s news from the Kenyan Broadcasting Company
http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=33808 Nice to see the people fighting back! Looking forward to learning more about this Dominion Group. Agreed, a very, very spooky name.
Evictees hold D.O hostage
By KBC Reporter/KNA ( Wednesday, December 07, 2005)
Villagers facing eviction from their alleged ancestral land, Yala swamp in Bondo district yesterday held a district officer (D.O) hostage for three hours forcing him to listen to their grievances.
Usigu DO Ignatius Mukabwa who had been sent by Bondo district Commissioner (DC) Mr. David Jakaiti to have the meeting at Aduwa in East Yimbo postponed got a rude shock when the over 400 villagers became adamant, rejecting the request and instead blocked the DO from leaving and forced him to chair the meeting instead.
Mr.Mukabwa found himself in trouble when he arrived after the residents including area councilor Jwenge Okwaro had waited for nearly six hours to deliver the message from the DC that he roes unable to attend the meeting due to unavoidable circumstances.
The provincial administrator whose area of jurisdiction includes the area in question was taken hostage by the hostile crowed saying that they could not continue postponing the issue and dared him to leave.
The irate villagers have vowed not to move from their land to pave way for an American investor who intends to turn the area into a man made lake to trap water from river Yala for irrigation towards the Sh. 2 billion Yala swamp rice farming project in Siaya and Bondo districts.
During the Monday incident, the DO who was accompanied by two chiefs-Julius Odemba (East Yimbo) and Joseph Rajema ( North Yimbo) and their assistants was humiliated in public with women and youths applauding speakers who accused the provincial administration of having been compromised by the American investor. "I'm telling you from today that if you abandon this meeting, something bad will happen and because the DC sent you, you must listen to our grievances and take back the message that we do not want this project if it will displace us without compensation."pointed mzee Nelson Owiti. Mukabwa who looked shaken pleaded with the villagers saying that he was just a mere messenger and it was the DC, not him who had called for the meeting, but his plea ended in deaf ears as he was forced to resume his seat after sensing danger when the crowed shot up and retorted back " No, No you are also a representative of the same administration in this area".
The American based Dominion group of companies country director Vetch Graham, deputy construction manager Philip Onyango, personnel manager Albert Nyangor and land adjudication and settlement officer in-charge of Siaya, Bondo and Busia districts Mr. Samson Masika watched in disbelief as the situation threatened to turn chaotic.
The villagers then went ahead to warn the government against taking the matter lightly as issues touching on land are sensitive.
Led by pastor Meshack Were and Erastus Odindo, they accused the Dominion farms of encroaching into private land and having duped elderly men and women into accepting a deal that would push them out of their fertile agricultural land including cattle grazing ground.
" How can this poor and less educated villagers negotiate with an international donor or company with a project of this magnitude unless government officers on the ground have been compromised and hiding the truth",said Odindo.
But the Dominion group of companies construction Manager Mr. Onyango said 85 families who will be affected by the company's expansion on land which was not initially given out by the Siaya and bondo districts local authorities shall be compensated at of shs 45,000 per acre.
Mr Onyango added that additional package would vary from one family to the other depending on the type of the house they live the trees and crops within their farms.
The Dominion official said a committee representing the local community was elected to negotiate with the company and that already 60 families have signed the agreement forms and the organization is processing their final dues.
However there was an unconfirmed report that the 20 families who had remained adamant and refused to sign the contract and demanding the disbandment of the local community group elders that negotiated with the Dominion group were squatters who do not have title deeds to the land they have been residing on.
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