Police in Taveta are looking for area Member of Parliament John Bwire and other local leaders after the destruction of an electric fence under construction in a 100-acre piece of land in Mokine, Taveta sub-county.
The MP is said to have gone into hiding after six people were arrested after they brought down the fence and burnt down poles in the land belonging to former Taveta MP Basil Criticos in Mokine area next to a land belonging to President William Ruto.
Taveta sub-county Police Commander Ibrahim Muchuma said the leaders have gone into hiding after Saturday and Tuesday destruction of the fence where they are claiming part of the land.
“We have arrested six people and we are looking for several leaders behind the property destruction but we hope to arrest them soon and present them to court. It is illegal to destroy private property instead of using dialogue in resolving the issues around land,” said the police commander.
Mr Muchuma said tens of locals protested on Tuesday pulling the fence which was being erected before burning some of the poles.
On Tuesday afternoon, locals led by Mr Bwire invaded Mr Criticos’ land and chased away workers who were putting up the fence claiming the land belongs to locals.
Mr Bwire said he led the residents to claim the land after Mr Criticos fenced the land including more than 33 houses in the contentious land.
“The locals protested their evictions since there was no court order to evict them. There must be a procedure to move the locals in the land and we do not want the businessman to use names of senior government officials to frustrate locals,” said Mr Bwire.
The Tuesday invasion came after Saturday’s incident where locals brought down a section of the electric fence and burnt it before police intervened to avert more destructions.
On Tuesday morning, Mr Bwire was summoned by Taveta Directorate of Criminal Investigation where he recoded statement but that did not deter him from leading locals to return to Mr Criticos land.
“I was asked to record statement by DCI and I cannot defy that but my rule is we are not going to court on the land which we know is part of local land. We shall continue blocking the setting up of the fence until Mr Criticos accepts to give us a section of the land and this will not happen only in Mokine, but even in Machungwani, we shall oppose fencing of the land,” said Mr Bwire.
In a phone, interview with Mr Criticos, he denied selling the land to a senior government official and he was only fencing the land because he legally owned the land. Mr Criticos said all squatters were allocated land and they had to move to allow him to farm.
“The rumours going round that I am selling the land to a senior government official is untrue since I have the title but what I want is to put the land into use,” said the former MP.
Mokine land which is located next to a 2,500-acre piece of land belonging to President Ruto, has been in contentious for years and now the locals said they would not allow any more land be sold to non-locals until all squatters are settled.
In 2017, the former Taveta MP sold 2,536 acres of land to President Ruto saying he was financed by Agriculture Finance Corporation (AFC), a parastatal under the Agriculture Ministry to buy the land.
The transaction happened when President Ruto was Agriculture Minister.
Mr Criticos has since condemned the invasion by the locals led by Mr Bwire saying it was illegal to forcefully lead them into his land.
