Tension is high in some areas of Mai Mahiu, Naivasha after a group of armed youths raided the vast Utheri Wa Lari farm on Monday and left a trail of destruction.
The youths are said to have burnt down the farm’s fence before police moved in to contain the situation.
The raid came barely two days after the controversial Building Bridges Initiative rally in Narok Stadium where the issue of ancestral land and historical injustices dominated the session.
Naivasha Sub County Police Commander Samuel Waweru said security agents were already on the ground to patrol and ensure calm is restored in the area.
He said the incident occurred when a group of youths attempted to block area residents from farming on the land but police managed to disperse them.
Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara termed the invasion as worrying hours after some leaders made inciting utterances in the Narok BBI rally, adding that title deeds should be respected.
The legislator explained that members of Utheri land company went to court for over twenty years to get their titles and therefore private land should be respected.
“The fruits of the skewed BBI rallies can already be seen with some people invading private land and its time the government stamped its authority on this,” she said.
The MP termed the issue of land as very emotive in the area noting that in the past, tens of lives had been lost and property worth millions destroyed.
For years, members of two communities have clashed over the 22, 000-acre farm before the Court of Appeal handed the land to the current members in 2015.
The farm chairman Stephen Muiru noted that this was the norm every time the planting season started in the area, adding that the latest attack had raised anxiety and concern among area residents with some fleeing for fear of more bloody invasions.
