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Youth vow to disrupt Uhuru title function

By JUSTUS WANGA December 6th, 2013 2 min read

A showdown looms in Kibera after President Uhuru Kenyatta confirmed he will issue title deeds to Nubians this weekend.

Mr Dennis Itumbi, a State House official, confirmed the President will be in Kibera on Sunday.

“Yes, Sunday is the launch but it is beyond the issue of land. The process of building modern houses will also be launched,” he said

On Tuesday, hundreds of youths took to the streets accusing Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu of sidelining other communities in the issuance of the titles.

They barricaded Olympic Road with piles of tyres, which  they later set ablaze to express their anger.

The youths said they would disrupt any event meant to issue titles to a few in the slum.

“We will not accept that kind of thing here. We will disrupt the meeting. We are an important part of this society and a serious decision like this cannot be made without our input. The aim is to divide us,” said Mr Dan Ouma, a youth leader.

The area MP Ken Okoth warned that any move to hand titles to one community and leave out others will trigger conflict. “We support a process that will lead to large scale slum upgrading, but any attempts to sideline other residents will be disastrous,” he said

An official at the Lands ministry who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter told NairobiNews that the communal title set to be handed over by the president covers about 288 acres of land.

No eviction

The Chairman of the Nubian Council of Elders Issa Abdul Faraj insists that no one will be evicted in the process. He said the land issue should not be used to divide communities which have lived alongside each other for decades.

“Kenya belongs to us all and no one has a right to evict anyone from any part. No Nubian can evict a person from another community from this place, just as no one from any other community can evict a Nubian from other areas within the republic,” he said.

Nubians were recently recognised as the 43rd indigenous community and the state is keen to declare part of Kibera as their communal land.