Machakos farmers seek govt help as goons invade properties

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Members of the giant Drumvale Farmers Cooperative Society in Machakos County have petitioned the government to intervene and assist them in getting rid of hired goons who are terrorising and causing mayhem on their farms.

Led by their chairman Felix Maingi, the troubled members said most of the goons, armed with crude weapons, are descending on innocent members' farms, forcibly evicting them while also preventing those who have not settled from accessing their properties.

One by one, the angry members who met at the society's offices in Kamulu area to launch their complaints accused the authorities of doing very little or nothing to protect them and their property despite frequent complaints raised to them on the matter.

"We don't want to take the law into our own hands, but if need be, we shall do what it takes to protect our property and ourselves,” said the members.

The chairman said that he had taken the necessary initiative to alert the authorities on the matter on several occasions, but nothing had been done.

"It is our humble request again, as law-abiding citizens, to request the authorities to intervene and protect the members from the uncalled-for brutality,” said the chairman.

He said, as much as the members pay taxes like any other Kenyans, they are bound to the protection of their property as enshrined in the country's constitution.

So far, the chairman said some members had incurred huge losses from the destruction of their property by the goons, apart from others being unable to access their farms for fear of being attacked by the 'planted goons' on their farms by interested characters with the intent to grab their land.

He appealed to both the provincial administration and other security stakeholders to intervene and bring sanity to the farms instead of opting to ignore.

"I thought goons were meant for politics, but now we are perturbed by how they are infiltrating our farms," he exclaimed.

At one point, the members threatened to arm themselves and defend their properties if the government continues showing no response saying they sacrificed their resources to buy the land and will not let it go to unscrupulous hands.

The members at the same time appealed to the President to intervene and compel the society's liquidator to hand over the society's records to the management.

"It is now more than thirteen years since the liquidator completed his mission with the society, but since then he has declined to hand over the documents to the society crippling many services of the society, " said the chairman.