More than 300 people from Mavoko Sub-County on Tuesday requested for free land from the East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) for Settlement.
They said they belong to two different groups, Dama Mavoko Welfare Society and Young Task Generation from both Mlolongo and Athi River towns.
Titus Kimanzi, chairman of Dama Mavoko Welfare Society said members of both the groups were aware that the land belongs to the cement company which is a government parastatal.
"We are aware that this land does not belong to us but East Africa Portland Cement Company. We had earlier accessed the land in peace to subdivide part of it among ourselves and construct houses as we wait for the parastatal's management to give us direction because members from other groups were busy doing so and had threatened to trespass on our territory," said Kimanzi.
Kimanzi who addressed the press in Athi River town claimed all members of the two groups were squatters and were looking for land to settle on.
He said National Lands Commission (NLC) chairman Muhammad Swazuri, who toured the land in July this year, promised that the commission would revert the land to the community for settlement. This is because the company had, allegedly, fully exhausted the materials it excavated for cement production.
These requests come barely a week since both the groups were ejected from the same piece of land by East Africa Portland Cement Company officials for allegedly trespassing on the government land last Friday.
"The company has not yet exhausted minerals from the entire land, in fact most of it is still rich in materials including this area which the locals have invaded," said EAPCC official who sought anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the press.
The officials had on Friday last week sought security assistance from the Athi River Police Station to help them eject the groups from the land which they were subdividing and erecting beacons on.
Athi River OCS, Gerald Gitau, who led the operations ordered the trespassers out of the land with immediate effect. Gitau ordered the culprits to demolish all their structures they had erected on the land and remove the materials out of the land immediately.
"As you make your requests to be considered in case part of the land will be reverted to the community, submit your applications not to Portland but the National Lands Commission. The land will remain empty until the matter is resolved," Gitau said last Friday.
Gitau banned all meetings by the locals on the land advising them to resort to hired hotels and other social places for meetings in case they would have any in the future, but keep off from the land.