Kenya's Most Authoritative Political Newspaper

Citizen Weekly

Sunday 10 May 2015

Muranga youth threaten to return to liquor brewing

Over 500 farmers from Mithi area, Maragua constituency in Murang’a county have bitterly protested against forced eviction from a piece of land they have been farming on. The farmers now accuse Kibuku Farm human resource manager of plotting their eviction from the farm.
According to some of the farmers who talked to us, they have been farming on the farm for the last 10 years after they were allowed utilise by an Indian who used to own the land.
The farmers further accused the local provincial administration of working in cahoots with the company’s management to kick them out of the farm. They claim that the farm lies along the river bank which used to be an illicit brew den and also served as a hideout for thugs. They say that after they used a lot of resources in making the farm what it is now, the flower farm is now demanding to take it through illegal means.
Sources now say the youths who have been practising farming in the farm claim to have taken a loan from Uwezo Fund to finance their farming activities and should the flower farm not take off, they will not be able to repay the loan. Already, some of their maize farms have been destroyed.
It is worth noting that some of the maize plantations which were destroyed during attempted evictions had only one month to be ready for harvesting and they wondered why they could not wait for the month to harvest and have something to repay the loan.
Apart from maize farms, some farmers also lost roots farms which were destroyed. They claim that they were not given enough notice to harvest their produce. Now the youths claim that if they are not saved from evictions, they may be forced to return to the old ways of brewing liquor.

No comments:

Post a Comment