Employees at an expansive ranch owned by Deputy President William Ruto in Mwatate, Taita Taveta County, have finally agreed to allow government officials access to the land.
The access has now allowed government engineers to desilt the lake and correct water connections that are located in Ruto's property known as Kisima Farm.
The 1000-acre ranch is located by the side of Lake Jipe which is the main water source in the area.
However, the ranch management had been in a protracted standoff with area residents and officials of the Taita Taveta County government over access to water canals located in the farm.
"The excavator machine was to start working today (Saturday) but we have agreed with the management to start on Monday morning. The management has given us the go-ahead so we have no challenges so far,” area MCA Chanzu Kamadi told the Nation.
The county government was forced to move to court where it accused the DP of carrying out illegal water connections to divert water connection for his private use.
The courts later ordered the farm management to allow government officials to access the property with the protection of police officers.
The farm's managing director Arie Dempers was at one time arrested after a confrontation with angry residents who wanted to storm into the ranch.
The deputy president bought the multimillion ranch from former Taveta MP Basil Criticos and has been reported to be rearing livestock on the farm.
Criticos, a Kenyan of European descent, is one of the largest landowners in Taita Taveta alongside the Kenyatta family.
In 2013, while attending the presidential debate, then-presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta admitted that his family owned about 30,000 acres of land in Taita Taveta.
The family later donated about four thousand acres to squatters living on their expansive land which hosts a number of schools and covers an entire ward.
“My family and I own land - about 30,000 acres in Taita Taveta. We’ve not acquired land illegally but through willing buyer-willing seller basis. There is nothing to prove that my family has illegally acquired land.
"I am keen for Karua to take me to the land I am alleged to own so that I can start doing something about," Uhuru stated in response to rival candidate Martha Karua who had accused the Kenyatta family of irregularly owning land the size of a province.
