A family in Umiru village, Yala sub county is appealing for government intervention after a neighbour allegedly fenced off part of their land.
According to the family, the neighbour who allegedly bought the land from one of their uncles, has ignored the fact that there was a court dispute over the same, and has gone ahead to deploy workers who are erecting a fence, thereby blocking access to their homes.
Speaking at Umiru village in Gem, Siaya county a member of the family, Peter Onyango Okwiri said his father settled at the controversial land in 1968, when he (Okwiri) was in standard six and for all those years, they have been peacefully living there.
“Around 2020, I heard that the land had been sold by one of my uncles who is now deceased, Jared Ogola,” said Okwiri, adding that the uncle was not even supposed to sell the land as there was a dispute within the family.
He said the family has had an on-going case with the neighbour and wondered how he acquired a court order that he was now flashing around, claiming that the court had allowed him to proceed with acquisition of the land.
“I am urging the government to step in and let us know the truth,” said Okwiri, who was flanked by other family members, among them his 90-year-old mother, Angeline Otieno Okwiri.
On her part, Angeline said she has all along lived on the parcel of land and wondered loudly, how her homestead could be sold without her consent.
A copy of the court order signed by Siaya principal magistrate, Benjamin Limo for the case number MCEL/E031/2024 in regard to the land in dispute that Okwiri gave to the media shows that the magistrate had on5/12/2024 issued a temporary injunction against all respondents to the application, their agents, employees or servants from alienating, selling, transferring, charging or evicting or in any other manner or interfering with the use and occupation of the suit property, namely East Gem/ Nyamninia/ 2654, 2655,2656 and 2657 pending hearing and determination of the case.
In the case, David Omondi Abongo and Vitalis Owino Oduor are the first and second applicants respectively, while the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning and Angeline Otieno Okwiri are cited as the respondents.
By Philip Onyango