Leaders from Kilifi County are now calling for the recognition of Waata community by granting them a tribe code.
Speaking during the burial of Waata community elder, 98 year old Emmanuel Badiva Guyo Kiribai at Kasikini village in Marafa ward, Magarini Sub County in Kilifi County, the leaders led by Kilifi Senator Stewart Madzayo also urged the government to resolve a land dispute pitting the community and the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC).
“I will take upon myself to ensure that I table a statement on the floor of the Senate so that the Waata community can get their tribe code and also ensure that the residents of Magarini including our Senate Speaker Amason Kingi get title deeds,” he said.
Kiribai had four wives, 31 children, 105 grandchildren, 62 great grandchildren and was a community defender especially on matters of land that ADC had laid claim on at Chamari, Adu, Kamale, Kasikini and Bungale.
He was a founder member of the Kasikini Community Conservancy and started the Waata Cultural Center Kasikini.
The Waata community which is an Oromo-speaking people, are a hunter-gatherer group found in Kenya, especially in six coastal counties of Kilifi, Taita Taveta, Kwale, Mombasa, Tana River and Lamu and they are also known as the Sanye and share this name with the neighboring Dahalo people.
According to the Waata community council of elders’ chairman Jacob Kokani, their population is estimated to be 35,000 members.
“It is very painful that we are still not recognized as a tribe but we demand that the gazettement be done so that we can be an independent tribe, at the moment we only have a census code,” he said.
Jacob Kokani, Waata spokesperson said that historically, the Waata were hunters and gatherers, renowned for their hunting skills, but their lifestyle has been significantly impacted by new hunting policies and modern socio-economic pressures that have forced many of them to adopt farming and other forms of employment.
Despite numerous challenges and near assimilation into larger communities, the Waata have managed to preserve many of their cultural and traditional practices, including a distinct language.
Mr. Philip Wario, the Kilifi County Chief Officer for Livestock Development, who hails from the community said that lack of a code had disadvantaged the community especially when it came to sharing of national resources such as employment.
“Our elder Kiribai was instrumental in fighting for our rights and it is disappointing that he has died without seeing the fruits of his struggles to emancipate our community,” he said.
Geoffrey Tenai who is the Director Minority Affairs at State House in President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza administration assured the community that the land matter between them and ADC was being resolved and they should be patient.
“On the gazettement matter, I will follow up until it is done but on ADC, we shall move slowly because we must be very fair to all parties. Even if the president came here and gave timelines, government process usually take long but I am very confident the matter will be resolved,” said Tenai.
He also promised the community that their tribe code was under progress and it will be gazetted in the near future.
