Isiolo's Isaak-Harti community wants NLC to stop planned land registration

Minority Isaak-Harti community addresses the media over the planned registration of community land in Isiolo County on August 4, 2026. [Ali Abdi, Standard]

The minority Isaak-Harti community in Isiolo has started a four-day walk to Nairobi that is aimed at stopping the National Land Commission (NLC) from carrying out the planned registration of community land in three electoral wards in the county.

The march, involving about 100 individuals, started on Tuesday from Isiolo town at 9:30 am, and they are expected to arrive in Nairobi on Saturday at around 4 pm.

Next Monday, they will present their petition on the matter to the Government through the Office of the President, where they want to directly appeal to President William Ruto to intervene in their matter, Parliament, NLC, human rights organisations, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and local and international media.

NLC is set to carry out community land registration in Isiolo between August 11 and 26, 2026, and the Isaak-Harti want this process to be stopped in the current Burat, Ngaremara and Oldonyiro electoral wards that were in the former Central division when Isiolo was a district.

It's in these three wards that the community lay claim to land measuring approximately 3, 600 square kilometres (1,400 square miles). The Isaak-Harti community in Kenya were descendants of British soldiers who fought in the First World War and settled in various parts of the country, including Isiolo, during and after the battle between 1914 and 1919 by the colonial administration.

They lamented that they have been living as internally displaced persons (IDPs) since 1965 when the entire colonial Northern Frontier Districts (NFD) comprising Isiolo, Marsabit, Garissa, Wajir and Mandera were placed under the Emergency laws and dispossessed of their land through the villagisation policy of the same year.

The Jomo Kenyatta administration undertook a military campaign, historians say was riddled with human rights abuses in the region after it's leaders declared secessionist war in a bid to join Somalia. It was dubbed the Shifta war.

The Isaak-Harti community, who say were not part of the war were also subjected to the brutality of the Kenyan soldiers that led to loss of lives, destruction of homes and property, killings or confiscation of their only source of living ---livestock, confiscation of ancestral land, torture and detention in concentration camps and thereafter political and economic marginalization.

The State of Emergency measures were set aside in 1992 after the country reverted back to multi-party system but this, according to the group was only on the paper.

 Addressing the media before the walk began on Tuesday, the chairperson of the group in Isiolo Abdulrahman Osman said, "for sixty years we have pursued justice peacefully and through lawful institutions. We are not seeking confrontation but asking that our voices be heard before a decision is taken that may permanently extinguish our historical claim."

"Generations were left homeless with their land not returned or compensated for and not resettled elsewhere. Up to this day we are IDPs in our own country and NLC wants us to remain so forever unless it's stopped from going on with the land registration plan," said Mr Osman.

With the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution, the group said they hoped that their woes would be addressed but faulted persons heading institutions mandated to address grievances like historical injustices.

On September 21, 2021, their petition to NLC did not address their grievances and the body transferred the land they claimed to the State and the County government via gazette notice number 16521, a decision Osman said made matters worse for the community.

"Part of our land was given to the Ministry of Livestock where the Livestock Marketing Division (LMD) was set up and the current abattoir is located. Other areas were given to the military and places like Chumvi Yarre, which was a ranch, had been subdivided and dished out to powerful cartels," he added.

The NLC determination, they noted, dimmed their hope of getting back their ancestral home.

The group has documentary evidence that shows they own the land, which includes colonial maps of the area, ownership papers, gazette notices, witness testimonials from elders who survived the Shifta war and sworn affidavits.

They appealed to the President, MPs from the region and human rights organisations to intervene on the matter before the commencement of land registration in the county that starts on August 11.