MAVUENI LAND OF STRIFE

Courtesy Image//: Chaduchinews- Mavueni B Settlement Scheme Plot NO. 1188 is being grabbed

In the lush village of Mavueni, Mnarani Ward in Kilifi North of Kilifi County, there is tension.

In this village, the family of Bahati Charo Mwinyi is crying for justice.

For over 50years, this family has known no other home rather than that homestead situated in plot number 1188, found in Mavueni ‘B’ Settlement Scheme.

The community in this village has lived in harmony with the land for generations.

They have been cultivating the soil, harvesting its bounty, and revered the ancestors who had tended to it for centuries.

Courtesy Image//: Chaduchinews- Map Sheet of 1188

The afternoon of Sartuday 22nd was tragic to this family as their peaceful existence was shattered.

A powerful corporation, backed by influential individuals, laid claim to the land disregarding the community’s ancestral rights to this land.

Despite their protests and pleas, the community is currently facing forcibly eviction from the land they had called home for generations.

As the vehicle carrying Askaris, goons and strange people with Kanzus razed their ancestral land, the community’s elderly matriarch wept, mourning the loss of their heritage and the displacement of her people.

The land, once a symbol of their identity and livelihood, is now under threat. It’s being grabbed for the benefit of outsiders.

The community’s struggle to reclaim their land and rights has been met with frustrations since 2013, according to documents in our possession.

But the trauma and pain of displacement was renewed on Sartuday as a constant reminder of the land injustice they had suffered for decades.

This story serves as a public plea for this community which serves as a testament to the struggles of many indigenous and rural communities in the coastside of Kenya, who face similar challenges in protecting their lands and heritage from exploitation and dispossession.