"Thika residents unblock diverted River Ndarugu"

Five hundred Thika East residents have unblocked six water points where influential commercial farmers had diverted water from Ndarugu River, which is drying up. It took the intervention of Tika Town MP Patrick Wainaina on Monday to avert a bloody clash as the residents had said they would 'teach the tycoons a lesson.' Residents confronted three 'tycoons' — commercial farmers —  in Munyu and Komo who had blocked water from flowing downstream to them and instead had diverted it to their own farms. More than 500 residents marched for 10km to the farms owned by the big farmers in Juja farm, Ndarugu and Nyacaba in the lower parts of Juja constituency.

For eight hours they destroyed barricades and moved huge boulders, quarry waste and hundred of sacks filled with soil to restore normal river flow downstream. Officers from MP Wainaina's office led residents in unblocking the river peacefully, without damaging property or causing injury. But the upstream farmers said they had been given permission by a chief to block the river and use the water to irrigate their crops...

The large-scale farmers had diverted the water to irrigate their commercial arms, where they grow tomatoes, kaleand cabbages on large scale. They are the major suppliers of the food crops to Githurai, Wangige and Marikiti markets in Kiambu and Nairobi. However, downstream residents said more than 5,000 residents, including schoolchildren from Munyu, Komo, Githima, Magana and Gatuanyaga villages, were suffering from acute water shortage caused by the big farm owners.