A return of a dark era looms in Tana River County, reviving memories of the 2012 massacre in the region over land wrangles.
Drums of war are beating in a subtle rhythm, elders gathering in the night to whip the emotions of the youth as opinion leaders of various communities make alarming statements over the ownership of pieces of land in dispute.
Gunshots have been fired by unknown people, scores have been attacked and injured as respective communities chest thump in their preparation for the worst.
Salim Ahmed, a resident, nearly lost his life after an ambush while clearing land to settle in the Kalkacha area last month.
"We had been told that the area was safe to settle in, so we went to clear the shrubs. The first place we cleared we were told it was a gravesite for a particular community, they kept pushing us away every time," he said.
Tired of being bullied, he and tens of others settled for a place that had neither graves nor inhabitants and began clearing it.
Little did he know that they were being watched, as a few minutes into the clearance exercise, a group of young men, armed with machetes and spears sprung from different directions beating them mercilessly.
"They said that they will never allow people from our community to come near or cross the tarmac road to the other side. It is by chance that I'm still alive because I knew I was not going to survive that beating," he said.
Some of the people he was with escaped with minor injuries and have lived to narrate the dark moment, but that would not mark the end of the row.
In Dayate, anger is brewing as residents in the area claim invasion by non-residents.
The El Nino rains marked the exodus of hundreds of families to the Dayate area in obedience to the government's call for people to move to higher grounds.
However, in the midst of the calamity, some saw an opportunity to get free land and joined with the survivors.
"We started seeing them capturing land, burning shrubs and grass that our livestock depend on, then started building. That got us worried because this land has its inhabitants," said Farah Argamso, an elder.
According to Mr Argamso, they welcomed the survivors to pitch camp temporarily until the floods subsided, pending further direction from relevant authorities.
However, they were shocked to see hundreds of people, majority of whom were not affected by floods, armed with machetes, moving to the land to apportion themselves land.
"I went with human rights activists to speak with the people, so that I could know who authorised their movement and they said it was the county government," said Mr Argamso.
One of the beneficiaries, a retired civil servant speaking to the Nation in anonymity, intimated that the exodus of the hundreds was authorised by the county administration.
She revealed that the plot to occupy the land started way back in 2019 when members of a Community-Based Organisation (CBO) were promised parcels of land by the county administration upon payment of Sh9,600 each.
The original plan was to apportion each member of the CBO 15 acres of land before it was revised to 10 acres of land and recently to five acres due to the surging number of interested individuals.
The money paid was to cater for registration into the CBO, survey and placement of beacons for each member.
"It is not the first time we are in the land, we have always been visiting, we have farmed in that place before, we are not aliens," she said.
Elders and opinion leaders from each community have drawn back to their cocoons, each spewing threats and sending warnings.
Leaders, on the other hand, are yet to agree on the best way forward to avert the impending chaos, after a meeting proposed for a resolution that was to be chaired by the county commissioner, was aborted.
Despite the tension, Tana River Governor Dhadho Godhana still reiterates that land in the county is the property of the county and national government hence the authority to decide on how it is used.
"You cannot wake up one day and decide a boundary for another community yet you don't own the land, neither is the land registered to that particular community," he said in an open forum in Hola.
According to Mr Godhana, the threats being made ought to be addressed legally, calling on security agencies to act on the people making the threats.
He reiterates that the county administration has the interest of the residents at heart, noting that the recent exodus is to inspire cohesion among communities in the county.
"Until we learn how to live together and trust one another, we will lag behind while others progress in other areas. We must register our land, we must own it and we must create room for development," he said.
Tana River County Commissioner David Koskei on the other hand warned of stern action against individuals making alarming statements on social media.
He called on the leaders and the county administration to adhere to the law and consider legal criteria in setting people into new places.
"You can't just tell people to carry machetes and occupy land, that is not how it's done, let us follow the right procedures to avert unnecessary chaos," he said.
Meanwhile, clerics in the county are appealing to the government to intervene in the situation, and help in finding a solution to the problems bedeviling the residents so as to avert a similar inter-ethnic conflict witnessed 12 years ago.
