Ganze residents on Friday held demonstrations against the sale of over 66,000 acres of Giriama ranch.
They said some of the ranch directors and local politicians sold the parcel to a private company at Sh13 billion.
The angry lot waved placard written ‘Riva Oil sio Mmiliki wa Giriama ranch’ (Riva oil is not the owner of Giriama ).
“Twataka haki yetu watu wa Ganze’ (we want justice as Ganze residents). We want back our land,” some read.
Others read: “Joseph Kingi na Kazungu Kambi wacheni kutunyanyasa.” (Joseph Kingi, Kazungu Kambi, stop exploiting us).
The group asked the National Land Commission to resolve the row so as to save their land from the ‘grabbers’.
The protesters said more than 15,000 people will lose their ancestral homes if the sale process is complete
Kenga Fondo, 62, said the ranch was set up to safeguard the land from grabbers .
“My father was among the residents who started the ranch as a way of protecting the community land,” he told journalists.
“Some directors colluded with politicians to sell it.”
He said Ezekiel Karisa, a former powerful chief, lured the residents to surrender the land for commercial livestock ranching.
Fondo said the project collapsed due to high rate of illiteracy amongst the residents leading to huge debts and losses.
He said the community leased the land to Kizingo butchery before the ranch was changed to a private property without their knowledge.
