Residents of Biashara Ward in Nakuru are protesting the alleged grabbing of land said to be the property of St Paul’s Primary School.
The residents accuse a church that allegedly belongs to a popular archbishop of illegally trying to possess part of the land that houses the primary school.
Brandishing tree branches, the citizens chanted, “Let us stop land grabbing,” in video footage seen by Kenyans.co.ke.
According to one of the residents, the land was earlier grabbed by unnamed individuals who then sold it to the church that has started demarcating the property.
“These people have been eyeing this area since December last year. They came and cut trees without informing the school board or the head teacher,” noted one of the protesting residents.
“They then put up a wall to demarcate the land, separating the area where pupils of lower primary used to learn,” he continued.
The residents are demanding to know, whose authority the church is forcefully using to possess the school’s land.
Furthermore, they have alluded to corruption by the church officials, calling on the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to investigate the matter.
“The school has a fence to show the limits of the property. Thus, no one should try and put boundaries inside the land,” insisted one of the residents.
The part of the land that has been grabbed covers almost ¾ acres, according to the residents.
They noted that the children no longer have a place for recreation and exercise as this constitutes part of the school playground.
In addition, they decried that the school would not have a place to build classrooms for Junior Secondary School students, should the land be demarcated in favor of the church.
“Let them not threaten us…We urge EACC to immediately go to court and stop the grabbing of this land,” added one of the protesters.
Notably, while the school allegedly has an allotment letter, the title deeds are yet to be issued, according to the residents.
“We have no faith in the alleged sellers of the land, and we are not afraid,” the protesters further chanted.
