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Former MP's kin want squatters evicted from Njiru farm

Lawyer Stephen Mwenesi (centre) with his clients Teresia Wairimu Kirima (left) and Maria Kirima outside the Milimani Law Courts on April 20, 2017. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By  Richard Munguti

NMG

What you need to know:

  • Mr Kirima died in December 2010 at a South Africa hospital, where he had been flown for specialised treatment.
  • Squatter Mzee Smith Lusiji claimed the land belonged to an Italian settler, a Mr Dominic, who gave the land to the squatters when he left Kenya.

The family of late former assistant minister Gerishon Kirima want the High Court to evict over 1,310 squatters who have invaded their Njiru farm.

Lawyers Wilfred Nyamu, Fred Ojiambo, Paul Onduso and Stephen Mwenesi told Justice Samuel Okong’o that the squatters invaded the farm valued at Sh5 billion after the death of the former Starehe MP in 2010.

They claimed the invaders illegally settled on 160 acres of the the 1,000-acre farm.

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Mr Kirima died in December 2010 at a South Africa hospital, where he had been flown for specialised treatment.

Teresia Wairimu Kirima and the children of the former MP have been sued by members of the Kamatuto self-help group, who want to be declared legal owners of the land through adverse possession.

But Mr Nyamu and the other lawyers for the Kirima estate have said the squatters do not qualify in law to be declared owners of the land they have been illegally occupying since 2011.

ITALIAN SETTLER

In his testimony in court Thursday, Mzee Smith Lusiji, a squatter said he was born on the land in 1939 and raised there.

He claimed the land belonged to an Italian settler, a Mr Dominic, who gave the land to the squatters when he left Kenya.

Mzee Lusiji, 78, said he moved out with his now late father to live in Nakuru but returned in 1962.

He alleged that in 2000, Mr Kirima, accompanied by police, demolished their houses with bulldozers, forcing him and his family to move to the nearby slums

“I reside at Maili Saba slums, adjacent to the Njiru Farm,” he said.

He pleaded with the judge to declare the portion they occupy as theirs through adverse possession.

The hearing continues

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