Land row between widow, activist ‘got out of control’

By Patrick Kibet

A brother to the late Maasai land rights activist Moses ole Mpoe told a Nakuru court how a land dispute between the deceased and the widow of the late Cabinet minister Mbiyu Koinange spiralled out of control.

Josphat ole Mpoe took to the witness stand and told of a land ownership feud between Moses and Eddah Wanjiru, widow of the former minister.

Josphat told Judge Hellen Omondi that Muthera farm in Mau Narok changed ownership in 1977, when Koinange acquired it and since then there had been numerous attempts to evict them from the land.

He was testifying during the hearing of a murder case where Koinange’s widow and her stepson David Njuno Mbiyu have been charged together with four others at the Nakuru High Court.

In the case, Wanjiru has been charged with the murder of Parsaaiyia ole Kitu and Moses on December 3, 2010, at Solai junction along the Nakuru-Eldoret Highway.

Wanjiru was charged alongside Njuno, Nicholas Ng’etich, Johnston Kipkurui, Stephen Mwanzia and Musana ole Mbukoe.

 Unknown men

The witness said on August 6, 2010, unknown men raided the farm where one George Kihara was attacked and injured and later Moses and others were arrested and charged over the incident.

During cross-examination, Josphat was put to task by the defence lawyers led by Senior Counsel Paul Muite on why he never mentioned in his statement that Wanjiru had threatened Moses.