Police were forced to intervene after irate members of the public decided to subdivide a 523-acre parcel of government land among themselves.
The incident which occurred on Monday, January 18, was a result of what the locals described as failed promises made to them by the national government.
The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) comprising 174 families were settled on the parcel of land located in Shamba la Muhu, Nyandarua County in 2009 with the promise to be resettled and compensated.
The families stated that they had grown impatient with waiting for the government to act and decided to take matters into their own hands. This resulted in them bringing down structures on the land and embarking on subdividing it.
A mother who spoke to the media, decried the poor standards of life among the squatter families, highlighting illnesses and lack of access to social amenities as a key challenge in their lives.
"We have lost friends and family due o the poor conditions we live in. Some of us have lived in tents for 13 years.
"We are citizens of this country. Born and raised and none of us deserves to live under such conditions," She stated.
Another resident argued that they had taken it upon themselves to solve a matter the government had failed to address in over a decade. He further alleged that some deep-pocketed individuals were eyeing the parcel of land.
"We decided to solve the matter ourselves and ease the burden on the government. We will divide the land, and when the government responds, their work will to sort the boundaries," he stated.
They appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene and ensure the families are resettled and compensated or at least, the land upon which they have called home for over a decade be permanently and officially allocated to them.
"There are some rich people who are after this land. So we want to ask President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene and help us and cease deploying officials to help us out as they have never shown up," another stated.
