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For many years, a row has been brewing at the troubled Chepchoina settlement scheme in Trans Nzoia county with many squatters deemed to have invaded the farm illegally being evicted.

 The row which started more than 25 years ago has turned out to be a do-or-die affair between the squatters, tycoons and the government.

The issue took yet another twist yesterday after leaders from West Pokot county threatened to stage a mass demonstration in the area.

Every planting season, the scheme has been making headlines over chaos and evictions with people unlawfully evicted from the land they claim to have owned for over 25 years.

Use of force

 More than 7,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) are camping along the road at Robinson and Katikomor in West Pokot county.

According to Kapenguria MP Samuel Moroto  (pictured)and his Sigor counterpart Peter Lochakapong, many injustices and illegalities are happening at the scheme including evictions, excessive use of force and harassment with security officers allegedly protecting influential individuals.

 People Daily established that at the scheme, there was double allocation of allotment letters between 1994 and 1997 where tycoons who have been colluding with government officials have been ploughing the lands.

 Moroto and Lochakapong claimed that some senior government officials are engaged in corruption and accused unnamed powerful politicians for interfering with the process so as to benefit from the allocation process and called for investigations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

 Moroto decried the increased cases of inhumane treatment by the security officers along the West Pokot and Trans Nzoia border adding that the security officers were colluding with influential individuals in government to forcefully evict them from the land.

 “Brokers have taken over and more than one plot has more than 10 title deeds and the police are protecting them,” said Moroto.

 He threatened that if the government fails to intervene in the matter, he will next week lead a mass demonstration at the scheme.

 “Houses have been burnt while tycoons who are cultivating the farms are being protected by security officers,” Moroto claimed.

 Lochakapong said that tension is high in the area claiming that last week the security team in the area threatened to shoot and kill some squatters who were demanding for their rights.

The first allotment letters of the controversial scheme were issued in the 1990s by the late Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner Ishmael Chelang’a, former ADC Managing Director Walter Kilele and Settlement Fund Trustees (SFT).

The governor now wants the exercise reviewed and probed arguing that the most deserving people were left out in the exercise.