State halts subdivision of 2,800-acre land in Kibiko area, Kajiado, after outcry

Kibiko area residents held a demonstration on Wednesday demanding a stop to the subdivision. [Peterson Githaiga, Standard]

The government has stopped an ongoing sub-division exercise at a controversial community land in Kibiko area in Ngong Kajiado County.

Kajiado West Deputy Commissioner Muranga Murekwa says the exercise should stop until two warring groups claiming ownership agree.

Addressing hundreds of area residents on Wednesday, who were protesting an alleged massive grabbing of the said land, The Deputy commissioner said they will be no sub-division until consent from the county government is given.

“From today we have ordered that this particular exercise should stop until we get consent from the county government,” said Murekwa.

Kibiko area residents protest the subdivision of community land in Kibiko area. [Peterson Githaiga, Standard]

Trouble has been brewing at a 2,800-acre land situated at Ngong in Kibiko area following the ongoing allocations by the National Land Commission.

The Keekonyokie clan that owns the trust land had earlier appealed to the government to help them stop a few senior government officers who have allegedly allocated themselves a big chunk of land within the prime land which has been the cause of wrangles among trustees for many years.

The land was set aside in the 1970s by the then-Ministry of Livestock as an animal holding ground.

The community later managed to have it reverted to them as communal land with the help of then-area MP, the late Professor George Saitoti. A title deed was then issued in 2007 to authenticate ownership with the help of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

A man protests the subdivision of community land in Kibiko area. [Peterson Githaiga, Standard]

On January 4, 2023, thousands of residents from the area held a demonstration to oppose the subdivision of the land in question. They accused some senior government including local leaders of allocating themselves a huge chunk of land denying the natives.

The demonstrators who comprised of old women and men vowed not to let the senior government officers take their ancestral land.

We will not let it go, this is the ancestral land that we occupied many years o go, let it be known by the entire government that we will die here.