A section of Nandi County leaders have dragged the name of Kenya’s first Vice President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga into the Kisumu-Nandi border row.
The leaders claimed that Jaramogi Oginga Odinga petitioned founding President Jomo Kenyatta to allow members of the Luo community from Kisumu to move and settle at hilly places in Nandi during heavy rains to avoid being affected by floods.
According to the leaders, Kenyatta accepted the request and hundreds of people from the Nyanza sugar belt were allowed to occupy land in Nandi near the boundary on temporary basis.
“When Jaramogi was dropped as Vice President, our counterparts from Kisumu County continued to stay in the land inside Nandi County until the death of Mzee Kenyatta in 1978,” former Nandi County Council Chairman Charles Tanui told Nation.
This comes even as Nandi governor Stephen Sang asked the National Land Commission (NLC) to review the Nandi-Kisumu border, so that a section of towns in Kisumu County are ‘returned’ to Nandi County.
The towns are Miwani, Kibos, Kibigori, Kopere, Chemelil and Muhoroni among others.
This has, however, not gone down well with a section of Kisumu County leadership.
Recently, Members of the Kisumu County Assembly (MCA’s) passed a motion seeking to compel the NLC and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to help resolve the land dispute.