Community rejects Raila's intervention over Yala swamp project

Members of the community living around the Yala swamp are up in arms against ODM leader Raila Odinga’s position that a dispute over ownership of the land be settled out of court.

Residents last year sent two representatives to file a case under a certificate of urgency to have operations at the swamp stopped until the area’s designation as government trust land is changed to community land.

At the burial ceremony in Alego Usonga for the late Samwel Aduol, who worked at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga museum, Mr Odinga asked area MP Samwel Atandi to sit with the community and get the case withdrawn from the courts.

"We want to have serious investments in the Yala swamp. We want to have the land put under irrigation and this will offer employment that will empower the community,” Mr Odinga said.

“Therefore, even the case that is in court, Mr Atandi should sit the people down and have it withdrawn. We need to develop our land.”

The community, said Yala Swamp Advocacy Forum (YSAF) secretary Rodgers Ochieng, needed to take the right of ownership before the activities are carried out on the land.

"The Yala swamp, like any other government trust land, should be registered as community land and that is what the 2010 Constitution stipulates. After the transfer, then the community will sit with the investor and continue with the processes," Mr Ochieng said.

But he downplayed claims that residents were out to fight the investor, saying that all investors are invited but must follow the right channels.

"The community around the swamp has learned the intention to have the land leased to the investor for 99 years. Who will be the owners of the land after that? That is our main concern and therefore the land should be given to the community first before other negotiations," he added.

YSAF chairman Ayiro Lwala said that without the registration, the community will be under the heel of the investor and that would cause rifts between the two sides.

"Before getting into any agreement, the interest of the community must be taken care of. If the Yala swamp remains government trust land, then the community members will live at the mercy of the investor," he said.

The Yala swamp has had a fair share of controversy since the first foreign investor, Dominion Farms, leased the land from the local government for 25 years. Misunderstandings between the investor and the community prompted the former to leave prematurely.

The swamp has yet another investor, Lake Agro Ltd. But two members of the community sued in the environment division of the High Court in Siaya to stop Lake Agro from working in the area until it is registered as a community land.

The petition lists the National Land Commission, Siaya County government, Lands CS and Lake Agro as respondents.

The petitioners also want the land surveyed and clearly demarcated, the community given part of it, and some of it set aside for conservation.

“The land under Yala Swamp is yet to be registered as community land so that communities around the area are allocated their share,” the petition says.