Angry locals block Narok-Maai Mahiu road over girl's death

Hundreds of motorists were stranded at Suswa area along the Narok-Maai Mahiu highway on Wednesday morning after the road was barricaded by enraged villagers protesting the death of a 9-year-old girl. 

The over 1,000 locals, who held a night-long vigil at the scene while guarding her body, barricaded the road by lighting old tires on fire as well as using stones and twigs.

They accused the management of Kedong Ranch of digging deep trenches around the 78,000-acre property where the Class Two girl at Oltanki Primary School met her death on Tuesday evening.

One of the residents, William Sipai, said the girl found that the road leading to her home had been cut off, so she tried to jump over the trenches but the walls collapsed and buried her alive.

“She tried to jump over it but it was so wide and the soil was loose...she was covered and buried alive,” he said.

Hundreds of motorists were stranded after the locals barricaded the road by lighting old tires stones and twigs, creating a heavy traffic snarl-up in both directions.

There was heated confrontation between the youth who attempted to set ablaze the houses used by security officers guarding bulldozers making the trenches. The move saw police officers from the Rapid Deployment Unit shoot towards the charging youths.

Another resident, Kazaroho Torome, accused Kedong Ranch of fencing in the community residing within the disputed land after initial access links from the main road to their homes were cut off. 

“Since last week, they opted to close the access roads to cut the community off from the market places, sources of water...it’s hard for livestock, children and old people to cross the 16-feet deep and 3-metre wide trenches,” said Mr Torome.

Residents claim that the project is meant to intimidate the community so that they move out of the land, sentiments area MCA Kipas Lengues shares. 

The MCA demanded that the project be stopped immediately until the company and the community reach an agreement. 

Naivasha deputy county commissioner Kisilu Mutua and anti-riot police officers from Maai Mahiu and Naivasha arrived at the scene three hours later to open the road to motorists.  

Court

The standoff comes after over 30,000 Maasais from Kedong moved to court in October 2019 to block their eviction after the government constructed a dry port at the ranch and leased more land to Uganda and South Sudan for container depots.

17 members of the community sued the State on behalf of their people while seeking a declaration of their occupation of the disputed land as lawful.

The ranch is also embroiled in a wayleave row with the Ministry of Energy that has stalled one of Kenya’s key power infrastructure projects, starving Western Kenya of cheaper geothermal power from Olkaria.

The Sh18.2 billion Olkaria-Lessos-Kisumu line under construction by the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) has stalled for months after managers of the expansive ranch demanded compensation.