There is a boiling land feud between the communities bordering Nandi and Vihiga county and the ongoing peace talks are a political tool.
Vihiga County is an administrative region in the former Western Province of Kenya whose headquarters are in Mbale, the largest town in the county. The county has a population of 554,622 and an area of 563 km². Vihiga County was split from Kakamega County in 1990.
Vihiga County boarders Nandi to the East, Kisumu County to the South, Siaya County to the West and KAKAMEGA County to the North.
According to the Weekly Citizen, a cabal of ethnic supremacists has hatched a plot to capture Vihiga county leadership in the 2022 general elections in order to cripple the capacity of area leaders to advocate for the land rights of Western immigrants in Nandi county who face imminent evictions.
In the plot sell-out, Luhya politicians have been hired and deployed to capture nomination tickets for the Amani National Congress Party to firmly get control of the county assembly and the county government come 2022.
Lead mercenaries charged with this Vihiga capture maneuver are Jackson Swadi MCA Kibwareng ward in Nandi and James Ndeda perennial contestant for the Emgwen parliamentary seat in Nandi. The two have been paid off to quit participating in Nandi county politics to pitch a tent in Vihiga where they are supposed to hire and sponsor candidates for MCA posts on ANC party tickets but who will be loyal and answerable to the UDA leadership at a regular fee. Currently, there are several elected Luhya MCAs in the Nandi county assembly.
To ensure the scheme succeeds, they have been tasked to win about three-quarters of MCA seats at the Vihiga county assembly so as to completely outmaneuver and manage whoever will get elected governor, be he an ANC or ODM governor and if he tries to disregard their dictates they impeach him or her easily.
Though the plot to neutralize immigrants in Nandi county remains constant, the UDA leadership had initially thought they could manage it by winning the presidency next year and overrunning ANC and ODM in the Western counties bordering Nandi mainly Vihiga and Kakamega counties where the majority of the immigrants originate from.
The NCIC says it has made a great effort in reconciling warring Kenyan communities with the aim of providing long-lasting solutions to the underlying land problems.
In the Vihiga-Kisumu border dispute, the Commission says it brought together elders, sub-county peace committees and key stakeholders from the two counties to discuss the boundary disputes at Maseno. The peace meetings were held on 6th November 2015 at the Trinity Fellowship, Maseno.
