The forgotten villagers of Chepchabas: Evicted, landless and poor

 

The grass-thatched mud houses squatting on the edges of vast, lush multinational tea farms catch your eye in Konoin, Bomet county.

Children climb upstream, balancing jerry cans of water delicately on their heads. Others gather firewood in nearby thickets.

Most of them no longer go to school. Their poor parents can't afford it. This is Chepchabas village.

Primary and secondary schools in the neighbourhood are congested. The roads are always muddy or dusty, depending on the weather. Social amenities such as health facilities are far between.

Workers in Chepchabas village wake up at cockcrow and brave the chilly morning plucking tea on the estates.

They have no option but to scrape a living from miserly wages paid at the team farms. Their ancestors were evicted from the land by white settlers over a century ago to pave way for the plantations. They have given up any hope of compensation and a decent life.

The families that have grown in population over the years are squatters in their ancestral land.

Almost 60 years since Independence, successive governments have never thought of resettling these people. They are forgotten. Their suffering is only known to them—and will likely be inherited by their descendants.

Those who spoke to us said their historical injustices date back to the 1920s when they entered an agreement with the British settlers under the colonial government to have them employed as casual laborers after being evicted from their land.

The settlers thereafter cleared the 6, 483 acres here and planted tea.

Cheruiyot Baliach said some of the families numbering 648 were settled in the area between 1968 and 1975.

About 214 families were allotted two acres instead of the seven they had agreed. Some of the residents planted tea on their portions while others opted to be employed as tea pickers in the estates.

Baliach said those who worked in the estates were compelled to obey tough rules.

“No male members of the labourer’s family above the age 16 would be allowed to stay with his parent in their homes unless they were contracted to work for the settlers,” he said.

The residents were moved from their original farms in Kimulot, Saosa, Chemogondany and Chekoibet, among other areas.

Their hopes are dimming that the government would one day listen to their plea to have the British government compensate them.

In 2014, Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony started the process to have the families in Chepchabas and the Talai community in the county compensated by the British for the atrocities meted on them during the colonial period.

Chepkwony, through the help of Queen’s Counsel Rodney Dixon and lawyer Kimutai Bosek, gathered the facts and thousands of those affected signed a petition which was to be filed in a UK court.

There has, however, been no action to date.

The United Nations has declared that the Kipsigis and Talai communities were subjected to gross violation of human rights comprising inhuman and degrading treatment, arbitrary detention, arbitrary displacement and violations of rights to privacy.

The UN asked the British government to offer a public apology and give commensurate compensation to the families.

The National Land Commission has received backing from the UN, which wants the tea estates in the region reevaluated.

While expressing concern about the failure of the UK government to restitute the communities evicted from their land, the UN Human Rights Council said the state ought to implement the 2019 decree and return the land to the rightful owners.

But all these efforts have not borne fruit. Former MCA Christopher Ng'eno and other local leaders regret the continued disregard of their plight by the government.

 “We have tried all we could and we have no other option but to just wait to see if anything will come our way in the long run,” Ng'eno said.    BY THE STAR