Oshikoto land grabs spiral out of control

The Ondonga Traditional Authority's senior leader for the Onalusheshete district, Eino Shondili Amutenya, says the grabbing of grazing land in the area has spiralled out of control.

Residents of Onalusheshete in Oshikoto Region are accusing Amutenya, governor Henock Kankoshi as well as the Ministry of Land Reform for the illegal land invasions and for not taking the plight of the affected farmers seriously.

The residents have also threatened to name and shame a group of high-profile people who they say are under Amutenya's protection and are involved in the fencing off large tracts of land in the area.

This, they say, is happening because of the current Ondonga leadership dispute.

“There is nobody in Onalusheshete with a farm covering 50km, either those who took land by themselves or those who were allocated land by traditional leaders.

“I am not aware of such big farms, unless they are new. It is true that people are grabbing land and residents are reporting this to me, but I do not have the power to do anything apart from reporting them to traditional authority,” Amutenya said.

Residents in villages such as Otyolo, Elavi and Ohainghete claim Amutenya, who survived the mass firing of Ondonga leaders, is lying as he is the one protecting those grabbing land.

“Every time we attempt to stop those land grabbers, they report us to him [Amutenya] and he always comes threatening us. He claims that he has the power to do whatever he wants in his district. What he does not know is that he does not have power to allocate land since he is not a village headman. He is also allocating land to acquaintances without consulting the headmen,” complainants told Namibian Sun.

However, Amutenya has challenged these people to come forward with names of those he allocated land to, or in the alternative, they should report them to the traditional authority's office for investigation.

Onalusheshete district is regarded as a prime grazing area, which also covers the Mangetti area where commercial farming is undertaken. Kankoshi recently confirmed that his office has received several letters of complaint from concerned farmers.

He said he is aware of the complaints, but he could not act on them because they were not addressed directly to him.

“My office has received letters of complaint over land at Onalusheshete, but I could not act because these complaints were not addressed directly to me. My office was only copied in. I can only act once the complaints are addressed to me directly. However, with the lack of information and feedback, it is clear there is crisis in that area,” Kankoshi said.

The Oshikoto land board chairperson Melania Iiputa last week also said her office has received numerous complaints from community members that they attended to, but they found it difficult to address.

“We investigated cases we received in our office, but it is very difficult for us to address. Community members are saying that it is land grabbing, but once we approach the traditional authority they will say they allocated the land to that person. We cannot differ with that because we don't allocate land. It is the traditional authority's responsibility,” Iiputa said.

The complainants have advised both Kankoshi and Iiputa to approach them in order to get the right information on the ground.



ILENI NANDJATO