The coast squatters – a political time bomb

The costal region is the hot bed of the nation wide squatter problem. The land crisis in the Coast province is a political time bomb.

Land UpDate, the quarterly magazine of Kenya Land Alliance, quotes regional coast representatives saying; “The land crisis in the Coast province is a political time bomb ticking away to almost guaranteed explosion” while addressing the Njonjo-lead Presidential Commission on Land Laws System.

The coast representatives further noted “It has happened in the past in Mtondia, Likoni, Tana River and even Madunguni. The list is endless and judging by the government’s ineffective approach to the crisis, violence is likely to recur. Many times instead of facing the crisis, the governments have played the devils advocate by stoking the fires of ethnic disparities, which at the hands of the regions’ inept political leadership, produces the final spark”.

While analyzing the land problem in the Costal region, representatives from the coast, Ngumbao Kithi and Alakeem Noor pointed out that rural landlessness is most prominent in Kwale, Kilifi, Taita Taveta, Mombasa, Lamu, Tana River and Malindi districts.

The squatter problem is acute in all these districts but each district has its own unique problems that range from the unresolved Mazrui family land disputes in Kilifi to Tana River’s perennial land adjudication that has culminated in fighting between the pastoralist Oma and the farming Pkkomo communities. Others include the issue of compensation in Kwale, the Swaleh Nguru family land problem in Mombasa, land grabbers in Lamu who have targeted all the beach plots, the unscrupulous politicians in Malindi and Taita Taveta district’s unique problems where 75% of the land is occupied by two prominent families and wild animals. [Source, KLA Land UpDate, Volume 3, No 2, 2004]