Kitui Deputy Governor Augustine Kanani and Kitui South MP Rachel Nyamai differed on the actual size of the Kitui South national game reserve/Musembi Nzengu.
Kitui South MP Rachel Nyamai speaking at the public participation forum in Mutha on Friday/Musembi Nzengu.

Kitui Deputy Governor Augustine Kanani and Kitui South MP Rachel Nyamai have differed over the actual size of the Kitui South National Game Reserve.

As a dispute linked to land ownership and conservation escalates, Nyamai maintains that the protected area measures 1,133 square kilometres, while Kanani insists the reserve spans 1,833 square kilometres.

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The disagreement played out on Friday at Mutha Trading Centre in Kitui South during a public participation forum convened by the National Assembly’s Public Petitions Committee.

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The session, chaired by Kitui West MP Vethi Nyenze, was prompted by a petition alleging encroachment on 700 square kilometres of community land.

During Friday’s forum, Nyamai took a firm stance, declaring that she would not allow her constituents to be dispossessed of their land.

 

“I am not answerable to any cabinet secretary, the deputy governor or any other authority, but to my voters whose land is being taken away,” she said.

Nyamai questioned the county government’s reliance on a 1979 legal notice to define the reserve’s boundaries, arguing that it had been superseded by legislation passed in the National Assembly in 2013.

She said while a 1979 legal notice issued by then Tourism and Wildlife Minister J. N. Ogutu placed the reserve’s size at 1,833 square kilometres, a 2013 Act of Parliament revised it downwards to 1,133 square kilometres.

The MP also appealed to President William Ruto to intervene, warning against what she termed an injustice to her constituents.

"Mr President, do not allow people who have messed elsewhere to bring their schemes here. Our people were not dispossessed of their land during the administrations of Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta. It should not happen during your time,” she pleaded.

In response, Kanani sought to reassure residents that the county government is committed to safeguarding both the reserve and community land rights.

However, he stood by the 1979 legal framework, noting that Legal Notice No. 186, signed on August 29, 1979, established the Kitui South Game Reserve at 1,833 square kilometres.

Separately, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, who visited Kitui about two weeks ago, said encroachment into the reserve had hindered effective management.

Murkomen, who presided over the launch of Nuu subcounty, added that fully handing over management would help flush out bandits believed to be hiding within the expansive reserve.