Lamu, KENYA: Lamu county commissioner Joseph Kanyiri has warned the Boni minority community against selling their lands which have been registered as communal lands.
Speaking at the Pandanguo village in Witu on Monday,Kanyiri said the habit would soon render the community landless in the near future if it doesn’t stop.
He warned the community on the high number of grabbers who were eyeing the lands and urged them to make necessary efforts to preserve the lands which are an ancestral heritage.
In 2015,the NLC issued the community with a block title deed for the 20,000 acre piece of land.
The commissioner said with the likes of the LAPSSET and other mega projects coming up in the county,the region has witnessed an increased number of land buyers and a myriad others who are willing to get land in the county at any given cost.
“Its very easy for people to take advantage and snatch all your land away.how would feel if you future generations became squatters on their own ancestral lands due to the mistakes their fathers will make now?Protect your land at all costs,”said Kanyiri.
Villagers have pointed fingers at local elders for selling off their lands without their permission or knowledge to foreigners.
They also urged the NLC to have their lands demarcated and distributed to each family so that they can also get to have individual title deeds since the block title deed makes it easy for the elders who are the executors to sell off the lands at will.
