A two-acre piece of land worth close to Sh200 million in Maziwa, Nairobi, said to belong to a housing society is at the centre of a protracted dispute, including ugly confrontations in a battle pitting the management of the society and politicians over its control.
The land belonged to Kamuthi Housing Co-operative Society, which claims that after settling its 152 pioneer members in 1990s, earmarked it for the construction of a market, dispensary, school, social hall and police station to benefit the members.
But before the land was used for the targeted mission, individuals who were not part of the firm and who reportedly worked in cahoots with some land ministry officials grabbed it, sub-divided and fraudulently sold part of it to third parties.
Other plots, officials say, were then irregularly allocated to people by Nairobi City Council and Ministry of Lands
However, the society successfully filed a complaint with commissioner of land to have the title deeds revoked.
Lands ministry, in a later dated October 19, 2000 by a Mr M.M Kanake on behalf of then-commissioner of land, communicated the cancellation of the title deeds to the holders and recommended that the mess be corrected in favour of the society.
The cancellation, which saw the ministry ask the beneficiaries to surrender the title deeds, was recommended by officials from the commissioner of co-operatives who toured the land on September 9, 1998, says the letter which the Sunday Nation has obtained.
“You are therefore requested to surrender the said plots to the public and return the title (deeds) for cancellation. Since you have neither purchased the same plots from the government nor from the company (Kamuthi), this is viewed as an erroneous allocation and is hereby cancelled,” reads the letter.
However, according to the society’s secretary Eliud Njoroge, the order was disobeyed, forcing the firm to forcibly take over the plots which are adjacent to Kamuthi’s offices in 2005 to facilitate the correction of the mess and subsequent surrendering of the land
The matter also moved to court where it has been dragging, costing the firm a fortune.
Pending the determination of the case Kamuthi, which started as farmers co-operative society, constructed the police post and social hall, with the final plans being to have the land used for the benefit of the targeted people once the title deeds are revoked.
But even as the matter continue to drag in court, the society is fighting wars with local politicians, who have been claiming that the land is public and accused the management of Kamuthi of illegally holding on to it.
A group of people among them a section under the banner Nyandudo, who the officials claim to be non-members, and are being incited by politicians have accused the firm’s management of allegedly holding on to it and have in the recent past been invading it.
This has led to confrontations after groups of people, alleged to have the backing of local politicians invaded the land and put up business structures, forcing the firm management to seek police interventions to have them flashed out.
“We want the land be surrendered so that the public utilities can be put in place,” said Mr Joseph Kamau, who claims to be the chairman of Nyandudo, and who accused a section the society officials of grabbing it, adding that they have written several letters to relevant offices over the matter.
A fortnight ago police were deployed to flash out a group of who had put up makeshift business premises on the disputed land even as concerns continue to mount over politicians new ways of leading the public in taking over private properties, sometimes in blatant disregard of court proceedings and order on grounds that they are meant for public utilities..
Kamuthi has already filed a police report against Kahawa West Ward Representative Joseph Komu, accusing him of leading groups in invading the land on grounds that its public property.
Another complaint has been filed with the National Land Commission and Directorate of Criminal Investigations accusing him of “interference with the co-operative assets” by inciting public to invade the land on grounds that it’s theirs.
“As soon as MCA Joseph Komu was elected into office, he tried to obtain an office from us and we declined. He then commenced in activities to grab the commercial plot next to our office including using hired goods,” reads a letter sent to NLC Vice Chair Abigail Mbagaya on February 13, 2019.
