Granny seeks JSC help to end years' long land row

Naivanus Wanjiru Ngori displays documents she had filed in Court to Appeal against the ruling of the High Court in Nakuru that directed she be evicted from a prime parcel of land she has known as home all her life. [photo: Steve Mkawale]

Naivanus Wanjiru Ngori is desperate. Her predicament is compounded by the fact that she is a widow and faces eviction from land she has known as home since 1950s.

The 95-year-old woman’s woes began in 2007 when a Nakuru court ruled that the two-acre land she occupied was not hers. Apparently, one of her sisters had sold it without her knowledge.

Since the ruling, the mother of eight, has faced untold suffering. Auctioneers have on several occasions attempted to evict her from the prime property located in Lake View Estate, Nakuru town.

Recently, things turned uglier when her attempt to appeal against another eviction order failed after Court file No 405 0f 1988 disappeared from the High Court Registry. She has now written to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) seeking its intervention.

The letter dated February 3 says in part: “We could not appeal for case number 405 of 23008 due to the missing court file and which we kindly request for your intervention since it carries more evidence concerning the land transaction”.

An official at the JSC Secretariat at the Supreme Court in Nairobi confirmed to The Standard on Saturday that they had received the letter and are investigating the matter.

“We acknowledge receipt of the letter by the said person and we are looking into the grievances raised by the complainant. JSC will respond in due course,” said an official.

The High Court in its ruling had said the two acres and development on the plot were lawfully sold by Ms Ngoris ole Kurara and Anna Memsi, the first and second respondent to Mr Francis Wanjohi Ndirangu.

Ms Ngori had stated that she had been occupying the land since 1963 and had inherited it from her father Edward Eustace Cyril Hudson. She told the court that in February 1988, the defendants colluded with Ndirangu, who was the third defendant to sell and transfer the property without her consent.

“Why should the file disappear? And just who is hiding it? These people should stop their tactics if they are indeed honest in their mission,” she posed.

The granny said it is only the Commission that can save the poor and vulnerable from being exploited and denied justice.

The courts, she added should serve both the poor and the rich without favour.