Mbarire Reacts After 73-Year-Old Widow Exposes Govt Officials In Newspaper Advert
Mbarire on Thursday, August 10 sent her delegates to the home of the granny, Zainabu Ramadhan Njoka, located at Dallas Estate in Kirimaru Ward.
Marvin Chege 
Embu Governor, Cecily Mbarire moved to address a land case uncovered by a 73-year-old widow who spent close to Ksh137,500 on advertising space in the Daily Nation newspaper to protest against a government official who had cut off access to her house.
Mbarire on Thursday, August 10 sent her delegates to the home of the granny, Zainabu Ramadhan Njoka, located at Dallas Estate in Kirimaru Ward.
She tasked the team, led by led by Raymond Kinyua, County Executive Committee Member (CEC) for Lands and Urban Development, with establishing whether or not one of their county staff had encroached into Njoka's tract of land as she claimed.
The CEC, after touring the home, had refuted her claims as well as reports claiming that some county officers were aiding and abetting their colleague to cut off access to her home by erecting a fence.
An aerial view of Embu Town. /GO PLACES DIGITAL
Speaking to the media, Kinyua, who was acting on behalf of Mbarire, argued that the home could be accessed by three roads contrary to Njoka's claims as depicted in the letter published in the local daily.
“No one has been marooned. No one has been blocked and no one is asking for access. You have all been here with me.
"The owner here has access to three roads so is it that they are asking for a fourth access to the road? In fact, others could be the ones asking her for access,” Kinyua differed with the granny.
The CEC went on to claim that one of the roads was well-developed with bitumen with the second accessed via Dallas Ring Road and the third branched into the backside of her plot.
However, he confirmed that one of the roads was fenced to allow the construction of a public hall adjusted to her parcel of land and that by his account, the wall was constructed after the ratification of recommendations drafted in a 2015 public participation engagement forum.
The CEC asked the lady to desist from making unjustified claims he argued threatened to ruin the reputation of Governor Mbarire, further urging her to visit his office to clear the misunderstandings.
On his part, Ibrahim Swaleh, the Deputy Speaker of Embu County Assembly and Kirimari Ward MCA, pledged to protect land owners from grabbers.
In her protest letter, Njoka complained that the official in her administration had daringly erected a wall at the entry point of her home located at Dallas Estate in Kirimaru Ward.
As a result of the bold action, Njoka complained that she could not gain access to her property, leaving her to explore other alternatives, among them spending hundreds of thousands of shillings on the advert to pile pressure on the county government to respond.
According to Njoka, the road in question was carved out during the subdivision of her family land close to 50 years ago.
Since that time, she has always used the road to gain access to her house and it was marked it as a public access road in the Registry Index Map (RIM) to date.
She lamented that she had to seek the help of neighbours to access her property where she is spending her retirement after the official blocked direct access to the property.
Njoka termed it unfair that she was forced to use all manner of alternatives to gain access to her home yet the schemers and executors of the plan to lock her out of her house were enjoying unrestricted access to their homes.
