There is a common misguided falsehood being peddled around this country that Kikuyus grabbed land in Lamu in the 1970s! People need to know as a matter that in 1972, when upcountry people settled in Lake Kenyatta(now Mpeketoni) it was more of a curse than a blessing!
The vast forested lands were not only safe havens for the dreaded Somali Shiftas but also the centre of human- wildlife violence! Infact the first 50 families that arrived in 1972, had almost been wiped out by 1980 due to snake bites.
Most families todate are veterans of wildlife violence with buffalos, elephants and hippos trudging the area in mannerism akin to rogueness!
In 1970 and 1980s it was believed that being taken to Mpeketoni was punitive enough to reign in recalcitrant thugs like the group of 100 youngmen who were suspected to have stolen Mzee Kenyatta’s cows at Gatundu! This group of desperados were rounded up by the GSU and forcefully taken to Mpeketoni! In fact, the first lot that arrived in Witu on their way to Mpeketoni jumped out of a moving lorry and ran to the D.O’s office in Witu hopping that they could hide there. They did not know they were jumping from a frying pan into fire!
Life in Mpeketoni was second only to hell! But the gallant men and women who persevered later turned the would be hell into a little heaven from around 1997! By the year 2005, every Kenyans was salivating to live in Mpeketoni. In 1978, an acre of land was going for ksh 15 only. In 1997 it went to ksh. 30,000. In 2010, it shot to ksh.200,000 per acre. Before the June attack, land in Mpeketoni haf shot to over a ksh.1 Million per acre and we were counting.
It is important also to correct the notion that it was only Kikuyus who were settled in Mpeketoni in the 1970s. There were also a few Luo families, the Manyala subtribe of Luhyas and Kambas! These are the facts that the media will never tell you!