Over forty members of one family at Muyaza village in Watamu in Malindi district were rendered homeless after their houses were demolished by private developer on Sunday morning incident.

The families have complained that their elder brother Kitsao Kinewa sold the family land to a tycoon who was evicting them.

The family spokesman Mr. Alphonce Sulubu said they were woken up early in the morning on Sunday by police officers who ordered them to get out.

He said their houses were demolished by hired goons under police guard noting that properties worthy 0.4 millions were destroyed.

“Over 20 police officers and 30 youths armed with crude weapons arrived here on Sunday and started demolishing our houses. We had not been informed if we were going to be evicted so most of our houses hold items and some cash were destroyed,” he quipped.

Mr. Sulubu told journalists that they are forced to spent the night in the cold since they have no where else to go as they were brought up there.

He lamented that the land (plot number 120 Jimba Baraka chembe) belongs to the family since it was owned by their late father who died back 1960s.

“We don’t know where our brother got the title deed of the land and changed it to his name. But the reality is the land belongs to the family,” said Mr. Sulubu.

He urged the government to intervene and summon their brother so that they can settle the issue peacefully.

“If here is where our father, our mother and our two brothers who died were buried how come our elder brother claims the land belongs to him what about us? We want him to come and solve the issue peacefully because we are relatives,” he reiterated.

Their neighbor Mr. Kazungu Masha said the disputed land belonged to the late father of the family and not the brother who is evicting his family members.

“It is just greed with their bother because the land belongs to their late father and they are the only remaining relative of the family. They too own the land and not him alone.  It’s just because he has used fraud means to obtain title of the land on his name,” he advised.

The area civic leader Mr. Anderson Nyundo said the government should intervene as quickly as possible as already children were not going to school since the incident occurred.

“We want the government to take action because children are not attending classes as their books and some clothes were destroyed during the incident as well as they have no where to call  home,” said Mr. Nyundo when he addressed journalists in Malindi.

He said the two brothers should come together and solve the issue peacefully.

Mr. Philip Thoya Baya their bother admitted that they were evicting their relatives at the land of their father on grounds that they refused to move to a 150 acres land in Magarini to pave way for development of the land.

He said the disputed land truly belonged to their late father who is just a brother to the relatives occupying the land.

“The land is for our father and not them they were just allowed to live there but since there is another land in Magarini we told them to leave the land so that we can develop it but they refused. You see that is a prime land and it should be developed that why we sold it.

“We are five brothers sons to the late our father who own the land according to the title deed we have so we decided to sell the land for development and tell our relatives to go and occupy the other 150 acres  land in Magarini district,” he told journalists.

 Malindi district commissioner Mr. Joshua Nkanatha confirmed the incident and defended police officers saying they were not demolishing houses but just serving a court order.

“The demolition was not done by police but some youths. They were just there to ensure that they maintain peace and order when serving the court order,” he said.

The disputed land, he said  was between two brothers and that was much of family dispute but insisted that police officers were just at the scene to serve the court order obtained by one of their family members who claims ownership of the land.

According to Mr. Kitsao Kinewa the DC said he claims ownership of the land and that he had just invited his family members to the land but refused to vacate when he asked them to do so.

“They came to my office but you see we can not stop court orders because if we fail to serve it that can lead us to be prosecuted,” he concluded.

Disclaimer: News24Kenya encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24Kenya.

- News24Kenya

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