Land rights battle rages on Kenyan river

AFP, Tana River Delta, Kenya

On the fertile lands around Kenya's longest river, a battle is raging-between farmers, conservationists and investors keen to turn the rich soil into swathes of commercial farmland. The 800-kilometre (500-mile) Tana river sustains a rich biodiversity and thousands of residents who rely on it for fish and on its sedimentary deposits for farming and pasture.
In December the residents won a court injunction temporarily halting the country's biggest sugar company, Mumias, from growing cane there for biofuel, but the case has since stumbled on legal technicalities.
With the case still unresolved, Kenya announced in December it was planning to lease 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of land near Tana to the Gulf state of Qatar to grow fruit and vegetables in exchange for the construction of a port, road and railway.
Despite the potential revenue that the projects can generate, residents here reject the sugar firm's plan since it will displace 22,000 people and dry up the soil.