A man found a new home in a cave in Mt Elgon after his family was forcefully evicted from where they had been living on two occasions about 30 years ago.
At first the family was evicted from their Kabwyoyo farm in Saboti and the land was gazzetted as a forest reserve.
Kasireen Tumwa and his family moved to Roromwet in Mt Elgon but they were again evicted by the state together with 18 other families in 1987 after a short stay.
Tumwa had just married when the evictions began but his wife deserted him because of the challenges hence. The looming eviction together with being dumped weighed him down.
The 70-year old decided to move into a cave and isolated himself from the rest of the world including his family.
According to his relatives, they searched for him in vain. Several years later, people living near the cave noticed Tumwa entering and living the cave.
Information about the man spread until it reached his family.
“We only discovered he was alive six years later. We got the information from people who lived near the cave. At first, it did not sound real, but we had to pursue this,” his cousin, Francis Sakong, stated.
The family tried to connect with their kin but he was hostile then. His family said that he would get angry whenever he was asked to return home.
Sakong also said that the government allocated the evicted families seven acres of land each at the Reina Settlement Scheme but Tumwa missed out since he was living in the cave.
Tumwa refused to go back home. He asked his family to bury him close to the cave when he dies.
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