Yala swamp residents take on 'investor' over push to 'take over their farms'

Led by the chairman of Yala Swamp farmers Walter Nyangira, the residents said there are plans to kick them out of the wetland despite it beinggazzetted as trust land in 1970. 

They alleged an investor wants to take over portions of land which had been reserved for them for subsistence farming.

The locals have threatened to sue to stop the plans. 

County government officials were unavailable for comment by the time of publication.

Moses Hayoyo, a local, alleged that the local leadership was quiet while the investor was trashing an agreement that set aside portions of the land for communities living on both sides of River Yala for agricultural use. 

He said that the investor now wants the farmers to move to parts of the swamp in Usonga, about 40 kilometres away and leave the portions that they had already struggled to make arable.

“It has become a trend that every time an investor comes to Yala Swamp, they target portions that farmers have struggled to reclaim,” he said. 

Locals held a meeting in Kadenge Ratuoro on Monday to call for action.