A section of Kitui residents welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the election of Dr. William Ruto.
Most of them who were affected by the construction of the Kibwezi-Kitui-Migwani road took the opportunity to request the President-Elect to push for their compensation after he is sworn in.
The residents lamented that 5 years after the road construction commenced they are yet to be compensated yet they are still languishing in poverty. They called upon William Ruto to give priority to their grievances as he embarks on delivering what he promised to the Kenyans.
“I had constructed plots in Majengo Mapya in Kitui town, in 2018 the National government came and took the land and some people were living there. Since that day we have never been compensated fully although the road construction ended. Many people have suffered a lot and now we ask the Government of William Ruto that is going to take over to make sure they compensate us once and for all because Ruto was also in the previous executive that planned the construction of Kibwezi-Kitui-Migwani road,” Dominic Mulwa Maanzo one of the residents said.
The residents claimed that some of the people were rendered landless and were forced to vacate their land after their houses were demolished had high hopes of getting compensation to start their lives somewhere else but they have never gotten the compensation to date.
“We have children who are in schools yet we don’t have money to pay for their fees because we depended on rent from our plots which have been demolished, some people like the Swahili community who had no alternative are living in the streets begging for help. We request the president-elect when he takes over the government to kindly make sure we are paid in the first days of his term in office,” Mulwa added.
They also urged Kenyans to live peacefully and accept the outcome of the court verdict.
“I would like to request the President-Elect to deliver what he promised to the Kenyans once he is sworn in and we hope that our issues will be addressed and get what is rightfully ours. Let’s live in peace as Kenyans without discriminating against anyone on basis of who they voted for,” John Mutiso added.
They also faulted National Land Commission (NLC) and Kenya National Highways Authority (KENHA) for neglecting them and requested the president-elect to change the boards of the two agencies which have proved to be dysfunctional because there was a planned budget to pay them and they were never paid.
