A family in Dowa District says it is struggling to get payments from government for its four hectares allegedly allocated to the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) in Mvera in 2018.

Speaking to one of the family members, Willy Chogadama Tembo said government allegedly took their farm through Mvera Combat Support Battalion without giving them any compersation.

“The land valued k200 million, it is 15 kilometers from the battalion and we inherited it from our forefathers in 1950,” he said.

The family was not informed when the government took over the land and they were surprised to see beacons installed intheir farm.

We were later invited by the T/A Chiwere, we met at the farm where we were asked to stop farming and harvesting fruits and wait for compensation from government,” he said.

MDF spokesperson Kelvin Mlelemba said MDF does not handle land issues.

Dowa District lands Officer Lezius Banda denied and said he does not know anything about issue, but T/A Chiwere confirmed he is discussing with both the family and MDF on the matter.

When contacted, Office of the Ombudsman spokesperson Arthur Semba said they traced the matter and the information they got was that the issue involved customary land.