Jonathan Manyindo
24 August 2008
Nairobi — Former Taveta MP Basil Criticos has issued notice to close down his sisal firm next month rendering more than 1,000 sisal workers jobless.
This follows the take over of his farm by the government to settle squatters.
Mr Criticos has issued dismissal notice to the workers since the county council has began uprooting sisal plants.
"I have made several appeals to the government to uphold the rule of law but it seems as if all that is landing on deaf ears and the only way is to lay off the workers," he said.
Speaking from his farm in Taveta, the former MP said the government last year took over his 15,000 acres of sisal plantation in the pretext of settling squatters but instead there is no settlement has been conducted.
The workers however staged a demonstration last weekend to protest over the council's uprooting of sisal plants.
Darubini ya Haki Taveta, a human rights lobby group, chairman Mr Jasper Muruttu now wants Settlement Fund Trustee (SFT) a department in the Ministry of Lands to clarify the ownership of the controversial land.
Mr Muruttu says SFT should settle squatters and not abdicate its roles to politicians.
Taveta Town council being an applicant to SFT, he said, does not have the mandate to allocate plots to people since it has not yet been allocated the amount they had applied.
"We agree that they applied for 2,000 acres to SFT but since then the land has not been allocated to anyone, they should stop operating as if there is no law," he said.
He said SFT is the mandatory body with the powers to allocate the plots and not the council and wants the law governing the process to be followed to avoid any mayhem.
However the controversial subdivision of the former MP's farm that is attached by the Agricultural Finance Corporation has hit a snug after the file misplacement at the Ministry of Lands headquarters in Nairobi.
The misplacement of file comes barely a few weeks after local leaders among them Special Programmes Minister Dr Naomi Shaban called for the exercise to be halted.
Mr Criticos was given the go-ahead in April to sell 7,000 acres to enable him repay a loan of Sh36 million he owes the AFC.
The letter, dated April 22, 2008, was signed by AFC managing director Omurembe Iyadi.
The deal was officially announced after separate meetings attended by senior AFC officials, the local DC and Mr Criticos.
The former MP has today claimed a foul play over the misplaced file. "I discovered that the file is missing after my lawyers applied for a search so as to proceed to seek approval from the District land control board," he said.
He wants the government to investigate and take disciplinary action against the ministry of Lands officials behind the misplacement of the file.
It was through the same method he said that his 15,000 acres and the Grand Regency Hotel was transferred illegally.
He expressed fear that the Minister who is also Taveta MP could have influenced the withdrawal of the file after she asked her Lands counterpart James Orengo in Voi recently to revoke the deal.
However the Special Programmes minister said the Taveta community has the financial capacity to service the loan and redeem the land instead of leaving the process to the former MP.
"We cannot allow such a process to be left in the hands of a person who has held the community to ransom for many years," she said.
The former MP said his effort to continue with the process has been slow because of the political interference.
Fresh squatter invasion, he said was another setback which he believes are orchestrated by the Provincial administration.
"I have reported the invasion to the local administration but they have not taken any action to protect my property despite a court order issued in 2005 to do so," he said.
However Taveta District Commissioner Mr Mohammed Barre said he has not seen the court order and has not authorised any invasion.
He held meetings to sensitise the community not to dare buy the land from the former MP because the government has plans of acquiring it instead.
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