There was joy and happiness in Gede, Ganze Sub county as the local community became the owners of the more than 60,000 acres of Gede/Mitangani group ranch.
The ceremony to ward the certificate of ownership of the land to the community was led by Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro, Assembly Speaker Teddy Mwambire, County Lands Executive Jane Kamto and several Members of County Assembly(MCAs) and senior county officials.
Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro took the locals through the journey of getting the land back to the community after some people formed a ranch with an aim of grabbing the land.
“The land which we are issuing it’s certificate today has to be sub divided because that is the only way to address the land issue. I have always advocated for sub division of land since I was an MP because that it the only way to make sure that people own their land with title deeds,” he said.
The Governor said it was while at working as Chief Administrative Secretary(CAS) at the lands department when he came across the Kilifi Ranch file and upon following it up with the then Ganze MP Teddy Mwambire discovered that the documents were fake and the roadmap to get back the land to the community started.
“This land was first named as Kilifi Ranch and some years back, minutes for the same were represented for discussion at the District Development Committee (DDC) in Kilifi county. Unfortunately the directors then could not process the title. That is why some rogue people tried to process a title using the same minutes but could not manage because I was at the lands ministry and thwarted their efforts,” said the Governor.
He promised to start the process of registering the Birya,Mnago Wa Dola,Mapotea and Mnagoni ranches.
“We shall allocate funds and start the process of registering the other four ranches and intact we shall refund the Sh1.5 million the community donated towards the registering of this ranch,” said the Governor.
Mr Mwambire who was then the area MP said he together with Governor Mung’aro and Mitangani Location Chief Stephen Thethe stepped in on behalf of the community to get this land.
“Together with Governor Mung’aro and chief Thethe, we sat with the then Governor Amason Kingi and asked him to fastrack the process of returning this land to the community. That is why he had to pump some funds into it. So by the time Governor Mung’aro left the lands ministry, he had done a lot about the Gede/Mitangani group ranch. Now the land is back to the community and this is a historical moment for us,” he said.
Other leaders who spoke about the land included Ganze Sub county administrator Joel Deche, who called for the government to register all the remaining ranches in the sub county.
Bamba MCA Said Mohamed, His Ganze counterpart Karisa Ngirani, also called for wib division of the land.
The governor later issued relief food and later opened the first tap water in the region that borders Tsavo East National park and Taita Taveta County.
