Catholic Archdiocese of Nyeri cede 600 acres of land to squatters

The Catholic Church has agreed to cede more than 600 acres of its land to a group of squatters.

The agreement is expected to bring to an end a long-running dispute between squatters and the church, dating back to the 1970s.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Nyeri and the Mathari Village Self-Help Group have recorded a consent at the Environment and Land court in Nyeri, laying down the procedures for the subdivision of the land.

Six months

The transfer of the land to up to 221 squatters, according to the consent, will be done within six months of the date of the agreement.

Public amenities under the possession and ownership of the church will be catered for during the subdivision.

“Mathari Village Self-Help Group will be expected to facilitate the subdivision of the said survey work through the church-appointed surveyor for verification and registration,” states the consent.

The villagers, on the other hand, will be expected to cater for title deed registration and stamp duty.

Upon completion, the church will forward all registered titles to the self-help group’s advocates.

The consent has been adopted as an order of the court before Justice Lucy Waithaka.

In the suit filed on June 24, 2013, Mathari Village Self-help Group members claimed they were residents of Mathari and Mwenji villages and had been in occupation of the four parcels of land since 1971.

“It was our forefathers who were residing in the areas under dispute before the state of emergency. We used to be labourers on the coffee farms,” the group argued.

They argued they had a right to own the land under adverse possession.

It claimed part of approximately 3,750 acres were taken over by Consolata Missionaries between 1954 and 1955 following an order by the British government during the state of emergency. The villagers were transferred to villages.

“In 1958, when the land demarcation took place, we were left under the said villages as squatters where we live to date,” the squatters averred in their affidavit through their lawyer, Charles Karweru.

They said they had no quarrel about the 1,054 acres given to the missionaries by their ancestors in 1912, but were laying claim to an additional 2,577 acres that they claimed were acquired by the church in 1955.

The archdiocese, through lawyer John Mugambi, had opposed the excision, noting claims of adverse possession could not apply under the circumstances.

Adverse possession

“Adverse possession cannot come into play where an adverse possessor has been occupying the land with the permission and knowledge of the owner,” an affidavit by the church’s legal adviser, Fr David Mutahi, reads.

The agreement between the Mathari villagers and the church puts to rest one of the disputes whose genesis dates back to the 1950s.

A similar suit filed by Mbari ya Mathari known as petition 14 of 2014 and filed through lawyer Wanyiri Kihoro by more than 400 petitioners, laying claim on the same church-owned land is still pending in the same court.

A similar petition filed by Mbari ya Murathimi was dismissed in 2006 by Justice Joseph Nyamu.

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