More than 150 families from Kivae Kwamboo village in Athi River are living in fear after seven houses were torched and ten others demolished by unknown assailants on Monday night.
The victims attributed the attack to a land dispute between them and a foreign investor of Arabian origin whom they said claimed to have bought the land from Lukenya Society.
Led by their village elder David Kinyati, the residents said the attack was intended to threaten them to vacate the contested parcel of land. He said that the investor had hired goons armed with crude weapons such as rungus, pangas, bows and arrows to make the attacks.
He said that the police had arrested six men from the village for alleged demolition of one of the investor’s houses on the same land three weeks ago prior to the recent attack.
“All of the six men who were arrested by police and since then detained in custody had their families attacked and houses either torched or demolished,” said Kinyati.
Loyce Mwangangi, 80, one of the victims whose houses were torched said her husband, Kiilu Makitee, was one of the arrested men. She said that police had arrested her husband earlier on and she was last night attacked at around 2am and her house set ablaze.
The residents accused the local administration authorities of colluding with the tycoon to frustrate and evict them from the land they claimed was their only home. Some of the victims, who are widows with little children, said they were sent away to a police station when they reported the matter and were not allowed to record any statements with the police.
This comes barely a month since the Kinanie Location chief, Josephat Masinga, was attacked and shot on the head in unclear circumstance at Mathatani shopping centre, a few kilometres from the village.