Maasai Mara demo turns violent

Police on Friday fought pitched battles with demonstrators who had invaded the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in protest against the awarding of a revenue collection contract to a bank.

The local community had stormed the park and started vandalising the newly-installed electronic system of collecting revenue at the gates.

When the police were called to stop the destruction, the mob started pelting them with stones.

Four people, one of them a police officer, were injured in the clashes that paralysed operations at the game reserve for six hours.

Several tourists were stranded as gunfire rent the air while tear gas engulfed the neighbouring Sikinani trading centre, where the protesters fled to.

The police, led by Mr Leonard Osewe, were at one time forced to flee when the demonstrators hit their colleague with a stone on the face, injuring him.

However, when they regrouped, they raided houses at the trading centre, searching for the protesters. Eventually, six people were arrested.

Several demonstrations have been staged in the game reserve since Narok county council started installing the new revenue collection system. (READ: Leaders divided over new system at the Mara)

The introduction of the smart card system was aimed at curbing corruption at the local authority.

The residents were angered by the council’s decision to award Equity Bank a contract to collect revenue using the new system that is valued at Sh28 million.

Trouble started after the community living around the game reserve held a meeting and decided to protest against failure by a select parliamentary committee appointed by National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende to turn up for a fact-finding mission at the park.

The committee had been appointed to investigate allegations of corruption made by the community in the deal between the council and the bank.

During their meeting, the residents resolved to storm the park, eject council workers and vandalise the system, which they did.

The meeting — addressed by Narok County Congress officials and local leaders — further resolved that the community would mobilise resources for a legal battle over the matter and stage a demonstration at Harambee House next week and seek audience with President Kibaki.

They will also stage a similar protest outside Parliament on the same day. One of the leaders, Mr Solomon Sayiaton, said awarding of the tender to the bank was not transparent.

He said they would not let the bank collect the revenue amounting to more than Sh3.5 billion annually in a 10-year contract.

“We were not consulted, we will never allow this to happen until the process is reversed and a favourable agreement is reached,” said Mr Sayiaton.

Another leader, Ms Eunice Marima asked: “How can the council lend our cow to a third party? We might not know how many calves it will have given birth to when we get it back in 10 years, so we protest against the 10-year contract.”