Nominated Member of Parliament Umulkheir Harun, has urged Tana River Governor Dhadho Godana to cease invasion of public land that belongs to Masalani people.
In a visit to the farm which Umulkheir says Governor Godana has started to invade, the MP called for dialogue so as to solve the stalemate. Here is what she had to say:
“We ae currently here in all this land behind me belong farm to Masalani people. These are the farms that have been existing and we have the farmers here with us. Some work has been done here where they have dug a ditch probably wanting to lay water pipes and these are not residents of Masalani who have done this work
Every Time the Governor of Tana River comes into power and I know him because he is my party member the conflict of three miles like my colleague has said, residents of Ijara and residents of Tana River have existed before, they are not people who fight over resources or anything , they work together.
My specific issue here is with the Governor Godana. I know you are the one behind this, do not bring conflict among these People who coexist peacefully even before I was born myself I grew up in Hola nobody chased me there’s I come from Masalani we live with people from Tana River peacefully. So if you start issues of conflict touching on land because land is a very sensitive issue, People will kill each other there will be bloodshed so stick to your side and we stick to our side and we will fight in court. We will go to the National Land Commission we will claim what is ours, the issue of the three mile we are going to sort it out because it’s a Draconian law that is there. It’s a colonial boundary that was laid anyway, so do not intimidate us we are not scared of you.
Right now we are looking for dialogue. Do not make us look for conflict because even with conflict we are ready for you. That’s all I can tell you.”