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When a necklace and a he-goat could secure 10 acres

Mother helping her daughter - a bride- get dressed. [Getty Images]

The real estate sector is in shambles. There are many horror stories about ambitious homeowners who have been taken to the cleaners by sweet-talking soil merchants who have been minting millions selling air.

Back in the day when there were no social media influencers or radios to entice buyers and crooked lawyers to rubber stamp bogus deals, a handshake witnessed by elders was a bond. A buyer did not need wads of cash to secure land.

But even then, such deals could still go awry and trigger ownership disputes that could last for almost a century. Such fate befell Mbuya Kitheru when she invested her precious he-goat before a council of elders.

Buying land

During the undated deal that took place long before land in Mbeere was adjudicated, the matriarch at the same time gave Sh8 and topped up with her prized copper necklace.

In return, the elders declared her the owner of a piece of land whose boundaries could only be determined by the existing physical features such as trees, stones and valleys. Since there were no beacons, a group of elders had to stand at different corners where they put markers.

Then, just like now, land owners could be shifty and had a tendency to secretly sell the same piece of land to other buyers. An adjudication report from government archives gives a pointer to the intricacies that arise when such disputes are being determined.

It is evident how difficult it is to trace transactions concluded without sale agreement documents and where witnesses solely relied on their memory in a society where clan members could turn against each other and alliances changed.

However, despite the changing seasons, the arbitration committees still sifted through the ever-changing narratives to extract nuggets of truth and facts to determine who the rightful owners of the land are.

According to the report from Mbeere South, arbiters were convinced that it was legally acceptable to seal a land deal using a necklace in place of hard currency to bestow ownership of a 10-acre piece of land to a stepson, 20 years after her death.

"This court is convinced that Mbutha Kitheru had bought the land in dispute during the colonial era with a necklace, a he-goat, and Sh8 from Mwire Mubabani of the Rweru clan. The appeal is allowed and the disputed land is awarded to Gatimu Kiricho (deceased) represented by Eustace Mwathi."

This verdict was given by Charles Igiha, Mbeere South Deputy County Commissioner, in October 2020, some 47 years after he lost his first petition before an arbitration board.

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