By Nicholas Bass
Karamo S. Bojang, Alkalo of Tujereng, West Coast Region has stated that 60% of the land disputes are based on dishonesty and criminal intent of witnesses and land owners this has greatly contributed to land disputes in his community.
In an interview with this reporter, he noted that despite the growing land disputes his office has solved 60% of land disputes by engaging parties in dialogue and hoping to solve the remaining 20% through dialogue with land victims and the collaboration of land owners and clan elders.
Alkalo Bojang vowed that his office will collaborate with clan elders in making sure investigations are conducted before any plot of land is released to any buyer, revealing that he has compensated land victims with his plots of land.
He disclosed that few people are banned from selling plots of land due to their dishonest and criminal intent in the land business.
According to him, most of the people who opposed land inheritance are causing conflict among his people and some of the children who are our local farmers who were given farmlands are claiming to be owners of those farmlands which results in conflict among clan elders for ownership.
Shedding light on this, he said many claimed the land because they found their parents farming on that particular plot of land and that does not make them the owner of such farmland because it was given to their parents for farming.
“It is important for one to enquire from the parents if the farmland belongs to them before making any claims on particular farmland. Land ownership is obtained by inheritance, given as a gift, allocated by the government or it is purchased by an individual. Ownership of land establish on farming is more profound than inheritance which is causing land conflict’’, Mr. Bojang explained.
He added that most of the unmarked plots of land that have been abandoned for more than a decade have increased the rate of land disputes, for many who are claiming their plots of land in his community are without a trace of those who gave them the plots because they are no longer alive