The county government of Kisumu has been given 21 days to give a report on communal land reportedly compulsorily acquired for the expansion of Kisumu town in the I97Os.
This follows complains from hundreds of villagers from Kokumu in Kolwa who say that their land was taken away in 1976 for the purpose, a process that saw the residents evicted from their homes.
Making a presentation before National Land Commission officials at the Kisumu Social Hall through their representative Christopher Nyabinda, they noted that the case falls under illegal land acquisition.
According to Nyabinda, the land was different from the initially proposed ones in Nyalunya and Kasule sub-locations that had been marked for acquisition before.
“The gazette notice dated November 19, 1976 stated clearly that Kanyakwar, South Kajulu and Nyalenda-Pandpieri sub locations will be compulsorily acquired. None of these fall within Nyalunya or Kasule sub-locations,'' he is quoted by the Standard.
The NLC has since directed the Professor Anyang' Nyong'o-led administration to issue a report explaining how the land was acquired, failure to which it should be redirected to its initial owners.
The transaction, according to the NLC, should be undertaken if the county attorney fails to table the report within a 21-day time frame.