Fresh fight erupts between Kisii, Nyamira counties over Ting’a Market
Keroka Town, which is at the border of Kisii and Nyamira counties and has been at the centre of a dispute over tax zones.
A new border dispute has broken out between Kisii and Nyamira counties, this time over Ting'a market, after a protracted battle over Keroka Town.
This comes after Kisii County Assembly, through Monyerero Ward Member of County Assembly (MCA) Peter Otachi, wrote to Nyamira County on September 16, 2024 asking them to stop collecting revenue from Ting'a Market.
"My attention has been drawn to the wrongful exercise of the revenue collection and service delivery which has persisted for a long time in Ting'a Market. I demand that you immediately cease and desist to conduct any activities purporting that you are in control of the said region," Mr Otachi's letter to Nyamira's chief officer in charge of economic planning reads in part.
The MCA demanded that Nyamira County Government, with immediate effect, withdraw its revenue collection officers from the market.
Mr Otachi submits that records from the surveys office show that Ting'a Market is located on Parcel No.2 "which squarely and entirely falls within Kisii County".
He cited Article 209 (5) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, stressing that the law prohibits revenue collection mechanisms, policies and measures that transcend the boundaries of a county.
His correspondence noted that there exists no agreement between the two counties whereby Kisii County acquiesced such powers to Nyamira County.
He claimed that the traders of Ting'a Market are part of the Kisii County population and that even a dispensary within it belongs to Kisii County Government.
"Any continued actions in respect to control, collection and management or revenue on the said market to date thus remain illegal, in as much as they are an antithesis to the spirit and tenor to the Constitution of Kenya," avers Mr Otachi.
Ting'a has a big livestock market every Monday where an average of 200 livestock is sold. Revenue officers located there collect up to Sh100, 000 every market day.
Other parcels
In a rejoinder, Nyamira County Assembly has directed Rigoma Ward MCA Nyambega Gisesa to lead a committee composed of all Nyamira MCAs in identifying parcels of land belonging to Nyamira County, but which are currently being occupied or under threat of occupation by Kisii County.
In a heated debate on Thursday, Speaker Enock Okero guided that the committee will look at all disputed parcels of land, including Kisii Bottlers, Jogoo area, Kisii National Polytechnic and the Kisii County Assembly Headquarters.
"Ting'a Market is one of the disputed areas between Nyamira and Kisii Counties. There are other places like Jogoo, Kisii Bottlers and ATC. The County Assembly of Nyamira has tasked us with identifying those areas and proposing ways through which the conflicts can be solved," says Mr Gisesa.
As evidence, the Monyerero Ward representative, Otachi, has produced a sampled copy of a single business permit showing that it was issued to a trader in Tinga Market in 2015 in Kitutu Chache North sub-County of Kisii.
The contestation over Ting'a Market dates back to 2015.
In June of that year, Ting'a Market traders Julius Abuga, Jeremiah Seme Mokaya, Daniel Areba, John Nyakundi Monyoncho wrote to the Kisii County Attorney complaining over alleged trespass by Nyamira County officials.
"Our clients have shops at Ting'a Market in Marani Division and have been paying rents as usual to the Kisii County government, but the Nyamira County government officials have been creating disturbances to our clients claiming that their shops lie within Nyamira County. ..their properties (kiosks and latrines) have been demolished," their lawyer's letter to the county attorney reads.
In Environment and Land Court Case No 343 of 2015, Justice John Mutungi, then at the Kisii High Court, ordered surveyors for both Nyamira and Kisii counties and their respective physical planners to visit Ting'a Market and physically delineate it's boundaries and confirm whether plot no.16 and 23 claimed by the Plaintiffs lies within Nyamira or Kisii.
The report was to be tabled in court within 120 days.
Not much is, however, known of the outcome of the delineation exercise as was ordered.
On June 22, 2015, the Bosire Gichana & Company Advocates wrote to the Kisii County Land Registrar requesting for certified copies of the registers of land parcel No.West Kitutu/Monyerero/1 and 2.
Such copies would go a long way in solving the territorial dispute at Ting'a market, the advocate said.
Earlier this year, the two counties contested the management and collection of revenue at Keroka Town.
However, the Kisii County government was displeased by a court ruling which appeared to favour Nyamira and has since appealed the decision in Kisumu.
