Residents of Kiasa village in Mavoko sub-county have raised concern over a tractor belonging to the Machakos government that has allegedly been abandoned in the village for the last two years.
The Star on Thursday sported the tractor which was still bearing registration number of the government grounded at an individual’s maize plantation few kilometers from Kyumbi town.
The locals who spoke to the Star said the tractor had been lying on the farm since August 2014 after it was used to grade an access road leading to the farm owner’s home during his wife’s burial.
“We as residents of Kiasa village are concerned about this tractor, a neighbor who owns the farm in which it is lying used it to grade an access road leading to his home in 2014 during the wife’s burial. It stayed unattended to by the roadside for six months before it was moved deep inside the farm,” said Julias Mwanza.
Mwanza said it is suspicious for the tractor to stay that long on a private land arguing it could be out of ill motive.
“How comes a public property has been lying in a private farm for that long? We residents need explanations from the Machakos Government, it is our property since it was bought out of our taxes,” said Mwanza.
Mwanza said the tractor ought to had been moved to either Kyumbi Police Station or Mavoko sub-county headquarters in Athi River town instead of being hidden in a private farm.
He said it is unsafe for the equipment to be left grounded there as its spare parts can be stolen, “Those behind damping this grader here must be hiding something, they want the tractor to be forgotten so that they unlawfully confiscate it,” said Mwanza.
Joseph Muia, an employee at the farm said his boss requested certain officials from the county government to move the tractor to the farm after it developed mechanical problems.
“It is true the grader graded a road leading to my boss’s home more than two years ago last before getting spoilt, it got grounded by the road side for several months before my boss asked the county officials to move it into the farm,” said Muia.
He said officers from the government kept visiting the farm where the tractor is grounded to inspect its condition on a regular basis.
Muia who spoke to the farm’s owner on the phone while at the scene said his boss said he could not talk to the press and directed that the Star contacts the area MCA for more details on the grader.
When contacted, Kinanie/Mathatani MCA Cecilia Sereka said she had requested the owner of the farm to let them move the grader on his land as the Machakos Government looks for spare parts to fix it.