The Government has completed the issuance of land title-deeds to residents of the troubled Nkararo area in Trans Mara West Sub-county thus putting to an end a prolonged land dispute between two Maasai clans that had claimed many lives and property in the past.
The titling process that kicked off last week has seen 1,273 title deeds issued to the Maasai clans of Siria and Iruasin – Gishu living in the area in an effort to end the dispute.
Speaking to the press in Narok, Wednesday, Narok County Commissioner (CC), Mr Evans Achoki, said after demarcating the land in the area, the government issued the title-deeds free of charge.
“The situation was bad, even a road constructed to act as boundary between the two clans had not done much to solve the problem as each side claimed the road had encroached on their land. But we are hopeful that the area will now have lasting peace,” Achoki said.
The two clans who live in a 15, 000 Kilometer square parcel of land have been fighting over land boundary since 1974.
Achoki called on residents to put their land to good use and respect the boundaries set by the Department of Land failure to which they will face the law.
Meanwhile, Mr Achoki said the fencing and tree planting that is going on in Mau forest was on course in a bid to save the water tower from destruction.
He said, tomorrow, Youth Affairs Principal Secretary (PS), Mr Charles Sunkuli, will be leading a team of senior government officials and stakeholders in planting more trees in the Mau.
The Government embarked on planting 10 billion trees to rehabilitate the Maasai Mau Forest following the end of the second phase of Mau eviction in 2019. The ongoing tree planting exercise in Mau was launched in November 2019.
To achieve the 10 billion trees target, the government sought to remove illegal settlers in Maasai Mau Forest in Narok County and during the first phase of the eviction in July 2018, about 7,700 people were evicted from the forest land which saw over 12,000 acres of the forest reclaimed.
The second phase of the water tower restoration where over 3,300 households moved out of the forest happened voluntarily in September and October 2019.
Forest cover in Narok currently stands at 15 per cent mainly due to the presence of Mau water tower which is the largest in the Country and other forests including Enoosupukia in Narok North Sub-county and Nyakweri in Trans Mara area.
By Mabel Keya- Shikuku
