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Senators have put the government on the spot for failing to put Chakama Ranch into use after allocating it as a grant in 1985.

Senate Ad hoc Committee chaired by Tana River lawmaker Danson Mungatana, argued that the tragedy could have been avoided had the land not been idle.

According to Mungatana the land, was “a perfect place for people to do evil” since it was unoccupied and open.

“How does the government allocate land to people without knowing their intentions or even following up to check if they are putting land to use as agreed,” he posed.

Yesterday, Lands Principal Secretary Nixon Korir, who represented Lands Cabinet Secretary Zachariah Njeru, said part of the reason the tragedy occurred at Shakahola was that the land was unoccupied.

Korir tabled documents before the committee by the Ministry showed the government allocated L.R No.13472 to Chakama Ranching Company Ltd.

“On December 5, 1985, L.R No. 13472 measuring approximately 100,000 acres was registered in favour of Chakama Ranching Company Ltd. as a grant No. CR.17458 for a term of 45 years commencing December 17, 1984,” the documents read.

This is after the shareholders and directors told the Danson Mungatana led committee investigating the Shakahola massacre that although the land belongs to a private liability company in the name of Chakama Ranching Company, the land was placed under receivership in the hands of Business Registration Service (BRS)- a government agency.

The documents further showed that L.R No.13472 was later subdivided giving rise to L.R No 13472/1 and L.R No 13472/1.

“We have already established that the unfortunate events took place within L.R No’s 13472/7 and 8 (formerly LR. No 13472/3 and L.R No 13472/4,” Korir told the committee.

Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor was also set to appear before the committee but did not turn up.

Mungatana said Oduor communicated to the committee asking to be given another date since he was embarking on the fourth phase of post-mortems. Oduor has been leading a team of pathologists in conducting autopsies on bodies exhumed from the Shakahola forest. The team has completed autopsies for 338 bodies since the exercise began.