Groups battle for ownership of 900 acre land in Kiambu

The claimants, under the banner Kasarini Ancestral Families’ Self-help Group, filed a claim with the National Land Commission (NLC) tribunal wanting to be given the land, which is already subdivided and partly sold.

The land is situated along Kiambu Road, near Thindigua, and, going by the current land rates, it could be worth over Sh100 billion.

Members of the group made up of different families claim to be the bona fide owners of the expansive land that hosts gated communities, a school, and churches.

They say it was grabbed from them.

EVICTION
Projects on the property include Runda Paradise, Kencom Sacco Homes, Woodsman Villa, Prime Presidential Runda and Paradise Lost picnic site, Runda Palm Gardens, St Mary’s School, Evergreen Centre, New Breed City Chapel and PCEA Kasarini Church.

In documents filed with the tribunal, the complainants say the land belonged to their forefathers — the late Mbogo Wainaina and Kariuki Gichinga — but they were evicted in an attack that saw some of them killed or maimed.

Their forefathers, they claim, bought the property from the Dorobo community — Kimokori, Kimandani, Gitaki and Ndimothi — in 1930 through barter trade.

According to them, 2,000 goats and cattle were given out in exchange for the land.

However, the transaction was not in writing as that was the mode of agreement then, owing to the parties’ inability to read and write.

WHITE SETTLERS
However, colonial settlers identified the land as suitable for coffee farming research and, after confrontations due to opposition from the occupants, the settlers agreed to organise the families in an association, Kasarini Farmers’ Co-operative Society, which was registered on July 20, 1964.

Going by the deal, the families worked the land, registered as Number 7153/R (under community land tenure) and continued to benefit from any development on in, which included coffee that was planted by the settlers.

But their woes would begin in 1974, when the settler management informed them that the land and coffee would be managed by their own (settler’s) co-operative society.

Saying they now live in slums, the families claim that a team of “five strange men” identified as Kenya Planters Co-operative Union (KPCU) officials started running their society.

INJUSTICE

The managers would later grab the society, “killing it”, when they stole its identity and took over the membership through illegal transfers, which saw the initial one liquidated, dissolved and replaced within four months.

The new members, according to a document filed in court and dated November 15, 2017, were Mr Samuel Mbugua, Ms Margaret Nyokabi, Mr Samuel Githegi, Ms Grace Muthoni, Mr Moses Mbugua, Ms Christine Mithiri, Mr Kimemia Gakunju, Ms Mary Waruri, Mr Kabogo Kangethe and Ms Ruth Njeri.

Registration of the new outfit, which they claim forged their documents, was done on July 10, 1974 yet no minutes of a meeting to dissolve the previous one are available.

The new society (No 2240) set grounds for their eviction, which saw their homes destroyed and families which had 1, 200 members ejected by the provincial administration, beaten, maimed and others killed and property looted in what they have described as an act of historical injustice.

PRIVATE PROPERTY
The safe where their society’s documents and money were kept was broken into, allegedly to remove any trace of ownership of the land at the centre of protracted court battles.

But in their response, the respondents claim that the property they occupy never belonged to the group members’ ancestors but was private property, Kasarini Estate, which they genuinely acquired — 369 acres at a consideration of Sh4.5 million.

Ms Nyokabi, a respondent, said in an affidavit that their society, which was made of five families, bought the land (L.R 7153/2 and 7153/1) in 1974 through a Co-operative Bank loan and were issued with an amalgamated title deed (L.R No 12825) in 1981.

“The purchase and subsequent amalgamation of the parcel L.R 7153/2 and 7153/1) into L.R 12825 was done in accordance with the existing law and the consent of the Land Control Board and Commissioner of Lands were duly obtained, making the amalgamation process lawful, regular and valid,” Ms Nyokabi said.

Ms Nyokabi said the suit, which started 40 years after she occupied the land, is a belated attempt at depriving them of their right to own land.

She described the claims against them as frivolous, vexations and scandalous.