Protests in Nyeri County over President Uhuru's directive

Occupants of a village in Nyeri have held protests over delayed surveying and subsequent issuance of title deeds for their land as had been directed by President Uhuru Kenyatta during this year’s Madaraka Day celebrations.

Close to 300 occupants of the Iruri village in Nyeri have been reported to have demonstrated over the delays as they had banked on the President’s call to a commitment on the Lands Ministry to have them certified for land ownership.

On July 1, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the Ministry of Lands to survey close to 150 colonial villages in Nyeri and issue the residents with title deeds within three weeks but on July 19, dailies reported that this had not been done, prompting the protests.

The protesters are believed to be in the lineage of people who the British colonial government displaced from their prime agricultural land and housed them in the villages despite having drawn them from different parts of the country.

They were later made to work in the large tracks of land under the British as they lived in the concentration areas.

Jubilee government has pledged to issue the residents of the colonial villages with titles deeds.