Raila Odinga has been accused of Auctioning Siaya’s Yala Swamp to a billionaire American DOMINION FARMS. Despite the knowledge of Yala swamp being an IBA (important Bird Area) a fresh water papyrus swamp with an endemic Sitatunga species of bird, Raila Odinga corruptly helped his American billionaire friend Dominion to lease and farm in the Yala Swamp in 2002 shortly after joining the government.
A fresh water Yala swamp ecosystem has 17,500 ha (50,000 acres) that were reclaimed and the entire Yala river diverted to farm in this newly acquired private farm. This directly polluted Yala river with artificial fertilizers and pesticides before the water ended up in Lake Vitoria water body.
Besides that, the farm built a dam that was 100% against the wishes of Siaya residents and Bondo community at large who used Yala river water for domestic and livestock.
Those living close to the proposed dam were all forcefully evicted by the American billionaire supported by Raila. This was when Raila was a senior member of the NARC government. They were also forced to accept to be paid as compensation of their lost land a sum of 145,000 Ksh per acre of land in return. This money was not enough to buy an alternative piece of land so many have ended up in the city slums.
