Gunshots rent the air as clouds of billowing teargas engulfed Gitaru HydroPower generation plant in Mbeere South when police moved in to disperse protesting villagers who had barricaded the plant’s gate.

Over 300 protesters had marched to the Kenya Energy Generating (KenGen) Company plant to demand compensation for their 4500-acre piece of land compulsorily acquired by the government for the development of the dam and plant in 1974.

Transport on the Kivaa-Kiambeere road was paralysed for most of the day as the protestors peppered the road with boulders and dead trees, with lorries that ferry sand from area rivers caught up in the ensuing confusion.

The Police had shown patience with the marchers as they walked the three kilometers from Kathoge market to Gitaru Plant Gate, laying stones and other obstacles on the road as they went along.

At the Gitaru Gate, the protestors refused to hand over their grievances to an assistant county commissioner sent to attend to them, dismissing her as too junior to hear their case.

It is then that police decided to disperse them by firing teargas upon which the demonstrators responded by throwing stones at the officers.

Their spokesmen, Ngari Njeru, John Njoka Runji, John Nyaga and Antony Njue said that although most of those in other areas were compensated, six Mbeere clans whose land was taken for the construction of Gitaru Power Station were never compensated.

They said the Mugwe, Gacugu, Ngui, Ikandi Maruri, Kamuvia and Magui clans tried to pursue their rights through the courts but the government prevailed upon them to withdraw the case to have the matter settled out of court. Consequently, they added, they entered into negotiations with Kengen in 2015 in talks facilitated by the National and County Governments where Kengen maintained that the Tana River Development Corporation, the precursor to Kengen, adequately compensated all land owners.

Kengen was however unable to provide documentation to prove their claim and the talks collapsed in 2019.

The spokesmen said the claimants, most of them now elderly, would like to be compensated “before they die” so that they show their children where they can build their homes.

They vowed to hold weekly demos “until the government agrees to listen” to them. Kengen did not respond to our request for a comment. The said if the government proves unresponsive then they will invade the land surrounding the dams and subdivide it.