More than 500 members of the Kiambu Nyakinyua Farmers Company are calling for an audit to verify the legitimate owners of a 15,000-acre property in Maai Mahiu.
In a petition seen by the Nation, they want title deeds issued by the Naivasha lands registrar revoked.
“We have discovered that the purported directors have operated with total abuse of office and pleading that an Executive Order be issued directing Kiambu Nyakinyua Farmers Company Limited to appoint and or elect officials legally,” said shareholder and community volunteer Lydiah Njung’e in the petition.
She argues that the purported directors should be prohibited from further dealings with the company.
Some of the original members, she said, are elderly and ailing and had lost track of the company’s activities since the last legitimate annual general meeting was held in 2004.
“Early 2012, a group of people imposed themselves as directors of Kiambu Nyakinyua Farmers Company Limited without the members’ consent or election,” she said.
Ms Njung’e claims that “non-members” had acquired land from the Maai Mahiu block and fraudulently obtained title deeds whereas bona fide members still have the company’s share certificate, leading to multiple allocations.
The Kiambu Nyakinyua Farmers Company was formed by a group of women from different divisions in the old Kiambu district – Kikuyu, Limuru, Githunguri, Kiambaa, Lari and Kedong. They also incorporated those who had worked for a company called Maiela Ltd.
They organised themselves as a cooperative society and approached President Jomo Kenyatta for land. The group comprised the Nyakinyua women dancers, who used to entertain the President and his guests with traditional melodies at functions.
Mzee Kenyatta helped them acquire land, but the beneficiaries were required to purchase it, with each contributing Sh20. In I970, they bought the land in Maai Mahiu from Maiella Ltd and a certificate of incorporation was issued on April 6, 1971.
On June 14, 1973 the land was transferred from Maiela to Kiambu Nyakinyua Farmers Company and both parties were represented by their directors, who signed the papers on behalf of the companies.
The land, documents show, was bought entirely by women. All share certificates were issued to them and even the directors who signed the papers were all women. They then started communal farming.
They later took a loan from the Agriculture Finance Corporation to buy more cows. But the farming business collapsed and they were unable to repay the loan.
“To stop the land from being auctioned, they decided to raise the capital by recruiting additional members and eventually the loan was paid off. The original members were 950 only and additional members were 453 totalling 1,403 members,” the documents say.
In the early 1970s, the directors agreed to settle each member on a six-acre parcel as they awaited further subdivision by the government.
They were given share certificates bearing the name Kiambu Nyakinyua Farmers Company and signed by women directors in office at the time.
By l985, all 1,403 members had been issued with share certificates and were supposed to pay Sh200 each to the government as survey fees for further subdivision, totalling Sh280,000.
A further Sh70,000 was also paid to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to conduct an environmental impact assessment, which never took place.
In 1989, a serious dispute arose among the members. The original 950 members tried to sideline the other 453. This was compounded by the fact that the old directors had left and new ones had been appointed.
The Rift Valley provincial commissioner at the time, Yusuf Haji, intervened, and in a public baraza, it was confirmed that all 1,403 members were genuine shareholders.
In 1993, a case was filed in the High Court in Nairobi (Case No. 2286 of 1993) to settle the dispute. On February 12, 2003, a judgment affirmed that the total members were 1,403.
Despite the verdict, the directors failed to act on the court orders and no subdivision was done and the dispute continued.
On February 8, 2005, the same court ordered that the land be subdivided. The surveyor, supervised by the provincial administration and the police, was to execute the order.
In July 2005, the surveyor was stopped from subdividing the land by squatters who called themselves the Namuncha Community, who destroyed boundary beacons the surveyor had installed.
The shareholders applied for a change of surveyor to allow a smooth and effective subdivision of the land.
On August 29, 2006, the surveyor started his work but was then violently stopped by the same squatters, who again uprooted beacons.
Though no subdivision was done, the illegal issuing of title deeds continued. On March 21, 2011, an order arising from a December 9, 2009 application prohibited the director of Survey of Kenya, the Nakuru district land registrar and the commissioner of land from continuing to issue titles.
Through their lawyer Lenny Langat, Kiambu Nyakinyua members have written a letter of objection to the National Land Commission, demanding that the acquisition process be stopped.
“In the alternative, the acquisition can proceed but any payment to persons should not be processed until the issues between the members and the directors are resolved,” the letter says.
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