The group secretary John Barasa (left) as he was addressing journalists as other officials were listening.[PHOTO|Leonard Wamalwa|WestFM]

Over 4000 people including widows, widowers, orphans and other vulnerable people from Trans Nzoia county who have been landless for many decades, now have a reason to smile after they acquired a 7500-acre piece of land in Narok South where they are supposed to settle soon.

The people who are members of Mama Na Mtoto group that has for quite a while been volunteering to clean and wash Kitale town acquired the land through savings from their meager earnings that they have engaged in for the period they have been leading the miserable life.

Group chairman Wilson Siata Maika told reporters that they had first started contributing Sh. 20 on a daily basis and later raised it to Sh. 60 that saw them buy a one acre piece of land that enabled them to resettle 10 widows in Birunda area of Trans Nzoia West district.

Accompanied by group secretary John Barasa Nang'ole and Treasurer Judith Mukhwana Wangasa said that after resettling the ten widows they became motivated and intensified their contributions that saw each of them contribute Sh. 4000 hence managing to raise the money that they used to buy the Narok land.

"Through our own contributions we managed to raise the Sh. 4.2 million that enabled us to acquire the land after our members especially the widows made more efforts to contribute and the government assisted us in identifying the land", chairman Siata said.

He noted that after raising the contribution, the group started to liaise with other groups of people with similar plight hence started working with a Nakuru based Kenya National Organization for Victims of Ethnic Clashes - KNOVEC that played a pivotal role in ensuring the group gets the land.

They revealed that the members shall be leaving Trans Nzoia on August 24 this year for their new pieces of land where they are expected to start a new life where each member is expected to get a reasonable amount of land that shall have their lives transformed greatly.

The chairman said most of the members were affected by tribal clashes of 1992, 1997 and others affected by the 2007/2008 post election and have since lived miserable lives that could not enable even their children to access basic education.

"We have been suffering for a long time as many of us live on rented houses hence we could not afford anything more than some little food on our table after toiling in casual jobs and we therefore see this as a true answer to our prayers by God and we are happy we are going to have a place we can call ours", said Mrs. Mukhwana the treasurer.

None of the politicians in the area or administrators of all the regimes that have been in power ever thought of solving the plight of the Mama na Mtoto group hence each of them had to fight tooth and nail to maintain the contributions and now they are set to get the returns.

The officials noted that before landing on the Narok land they had tried to search for land nearer home but didn’t manage to get one till they got the one in Narok which they said despite being far from their homeland, they have no otherwise but to settle there and get on with their new lives.

They are optimistic that on arrival they will have to survive at any cost as long as each of them shall be on his or her own piece of land though they have appealed to the government and nongovernmental organizations among other donors to come in and assist them with tents and other humanitarian assistance as they shall be preparing to put up structures on the land.

The officials confirmed that all arrangements had been finalized on how they will travel from Kitale to Narok South and had earlier involved the senior provincial administrators from the district as they went to assess the land.

However the exit of the 4000 vulnerable people from Trans Nzoia to Narok county might to some extent have a negative political impact in Trans Nzoia where the 4000 votes could make a tremendous impact to some of the aspiring politicians.