More than 160 members of Nyakinyua/Wareng Company in Uasin Gishu County want the government to expedite the process of issuance of title deeds for their 100 acres of agricultural land gifted to them by Kenya’s founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta 48 years ago.
They claimed that land brokers have taken advantage of their decade long plight to illegally take over, subdivide and sell their parcels to unsuspecting buyers.
Led by Jacinta Muthoni, 70, the members said they were rewarded the land, situated in Soy area along the border of Uasin Gishu and Kakamega counties by the founding father of the nation for entertaining him during his tour of the region.
“As a member of the Nyakinyua/Wareng group, we could dance for the founding President and that is how he gifted us the land as a sign of appreciation for entertaining him,” said Muthoni.
Muthoni is among hundreds of the beneficiaries of the agricultural land who have been rendered landless after a group of land brokers chased them from the disputed property twenty years ago.
The brokers illegally took over, subdivided and sold the prime property to unsuspecting buyers to the consternation of the legal
owners of the land.
She almost lost her life
According to Muthoni, attempts by the members to reclaim back their land have hit a snag as the new settlers have ganged up and chased them away using crude weapons.
She recounts how 10 years ago she almost lost her life alongside other 40 members after they tried to make their way to the land for a planting mission.
“A group of youths, armed with pangas and other crude weapons, chased us away while threatening to kill us claiming that we were intruders on their parent’s property. We had to run for our dear lives and we have never returned there since then,” recalls Muthoni who is now living as a squatter in Matharu area, some 40 kilometre from Eldoret town, along the Eldoret-Nakuru highway.
Esther Wanjiku, 68, who is also a beneficiary of the disputed land regrets that Mzee Kenyatta died in 1978 before his government could process legal land documents for their group, a situation, she attributes to their current problems.
She said when they sought audience with the Principal Secretary for Lands and Physical planning Nicholas Muraguri, in his Nairobi office four months ago he assured them that their issue would be addressed once and for all in two months.
Former members of land buying companies
Wanjiku, however, notes that the period the PS promised to solve their issues has since elapsed and they have not heard anything
from his office.
“The PS assured us that he will intervene and solve our title deed problem when we paid a courtesy call in his office as representatives of the Nyakinyua/Wareng members from Uasin Gishu County four months ago,” she said.
Uasin Gishu County Commissioner Stephen Kihara, while reacting to the matter, accused former members of the land buying companies in the region of being behind decade long wrangles related to the affected parcel of the land.
Kihara claimed that the old members were taking advantage of lack of title deeds to the said land to illegally and secretly sell the property to unsuspecting buyers warning that the government will compel them to account for their action which he termed fraud.
‘It is unfortunate that former members of land buying companies are the ones perpetuating wrangles that have caused genuine members to lose their share of the land to unscrupulous land owners in the area,’ said Kihara.