The controversy over the ownership of Yala Wetland in Siaya County has resurfaced, this time round it has sucked in Governor James Orengo who faces allegations of short-changing the local community.

The Yala wetland community now accuses the Siaya County government of conniving with a foreign investor to deprive them of their ancestral land that is reserved for subsistence farming.

On Saturday, the community threatened to move to court to stop the investor and the county government from going ahead with plans to move them out of the areas they have been farming for years.

According to the community, an investor who took over from Dominion Farms Limited and has been cultivating sugarcane in the wetland recently convened a meeting with locals, notifying them that they will have to relinquish the parcels of land that had been set aside for the community and move further deeper.

Led by the chairman of Yala Swamp Farmers Walter Otieno, community members who met at Musunguru Grounds on Saturday accused the county government of working in cahoots with the investor to dislodge them from their ancestral land.

“It is no longer a community land from the look of things. It has been turned into an investor’s paradise” lamented Otieno, who added that this is despite the fact that the land that was gazetted in 1970 as trust land, was turned into community land at the after promulgation of the 2010 constitution.

The chairman accused national and county government officials of snubbing their meeting despite being invited, blamed the county government of Siaya of dragging its feet to have the land registered as community land.

“The 2010 constitution requires that such land be registered and we cannot understand the delay” said the chairman who lamented that they have made several trips to the county government headquarters in pursuit of the matter but in vain.

An elder, Moses Otieno Hayoyo lamented that the local leadership was quiet while the investor was trashing an agreement that set aside portions of the land for communities living on both sides of river Yala for agricultural use.

Hayoyo said that the investor now wants the farmers to move to parts of the swamp in Usonga, about 40 kilometres away and leave the portions that we have struggled to make arable.

“We are disappointed that every time an investor comes in, they target portions that we have cleared to farm and push us further inside the swamp” he said adding that the investors should be made to reclaim the land as they have the required equipment, unlike the locals who rely on their hands.

Addressing the occasion, Bernard Ogeya Mugele and Pastor James Hoya challenged Governor James Orengo to fulfil a promise he made to a delegation from the area to resolve the matter within weeks.

“You personally assured the community that you will resolve the matter within two weeks when we visited your office immediately after taking over the office, what happened?” posed Mugele adding that the community will move to court to seek justice should action not be taken to safe guard their land.

Mugele said that most of those engaged in subsistence farming in the targeted land were elderly who have no energy to reclaim the portions that they are being asked to move to.

“They cannot manage to trek for more than 40 kilometres daily to access the new areas in Usonga,” he said.

Pastor Haya challenged the county government to respect the law and ensure that the public was consulted on matters affecting them.

“So far, neither the national nor the county government has consulted the public over the matter. Nobody wants to come to the open to tell us what is going on” he said adding that it was a pity that the government that they elected was turning its back on them.

• A Tell / KNA report / By Philip Onyango