Salt companies in Magarini asked to clearly mark their boundaries

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has asked salt companies in Magarini constituency to clearly mark their boundaries to reduce land disputes in the area.

Commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Benard Mogesa, told the companies to collaborate with the National Lands Commission (NLC), the Ministry of Lands and locals to establish the boundaries of land on which the firms operate.

Dr.  Mogesa said that although many salt companies had title deeds, some residents have accused them of grabbing their ancestral land, leading to numerous land disputes in the area.

He was speaking at the Gongoni Cultural Centre during the dissemination of the Malindi Public Inquiry Audit Report, an audit of an inquiry carried out by the commission on the effects of salt harvesting on human rights in Magarini Constituency in 2005.

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“We have established that the salt companies have title deeds. The challenge is that they have not clearly marked their boundaries, a fact that has led to perennial disputes between them and locals,” he told journalists after the event.

Dr. Moegsa at the same time urged the salt companies to enhance the safety of their employees and provide them with protective gears bearing the firms’ logos.

He warned the companies against paying their workers lower wages than the minimum set by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection.

Dr. Mogesa said the commission had carried out the audit to establish whether recommendations made in a report it wrote in 2006 following the 2005 inquiry had been implemented.

In 2005, the commission carried out a public inquiry into allegations of human rights violations arising from the activities of salt manufacturing companies in Magarini division and released its report in 2006 with multiple recommendations.

During the public inquiry held in Marereni, the commission investigated complaints related to evictions from land which the community perceived to be belonging  to them  as well as health complications arising from salt manufacturing.

The commission also investigated complaints of violations of workers’ rights, environmental degradation and the role of police and the then provincial administration in harassment of residents.