State officials blamed for Sh3.2 billion Ruaraka land dispute

Afrison Import and Export Limited advocate Nicholas Nyamai display a document when he stands for his client who did not turn up before the National Assembly Lands Committee at parliament on April 24, 2018 on the disputed Ruaraka Land [Boniface Okendo/Standard]

Two firms at the centre of a Sh3.2 billion school land dispute have accused influential Government individuals of frustrating their requests for compensation.

Afrison Export Import Ltd and Huelands Ltd, through its director Francis Mburu, said they were the registered owners of land registered as LR. No 7879/4 on which Ruaraka Secondary School and Drive Inn Primary School sit.

In an affidavit tabled before the National Assembly’s Land Committee yesterday, the firms cited frustrations in pushing the Government to compensate them for the land which the two schools have occupied for the past 30 years.

Land grabbers

“The said land grabbers are very highly placed in the Government and are very influential business people in society,” said Mr Mburu in the nine-page affidavit.

He added: “The land grabbers have been frustrating Afrison Export Import Ltd and Huelands Ltd’s requests for compensation from the Government. The said land grabbers are politicians and senior civil servants who fear that Afrison Export Import Ltd and Huelands Ltd will demolish the illegal buildings/structures erected on the land they have grabbed.”

Mburu failed to appear before the committee, with his lawyers saying he was unwell. This was the second time he was being invited to appear before the MPs.

Despite admitting Mburu's affidavit, the committee insisted that the firms’ three directors – Francis Mburu, Justin Mburu, and Mark Mburu – appear before it on a date to be set.

The committee members were offended when the firms’ lawyer, Nicholas Nyamai, accused them of unfairness.

The MPs threatened to declare the lawyer a hostile witness and asked him to cooperate to ensure the committee gathered information in the investigation on alleged irregular compensation.

They accused the directors of deliberately trying to derail their investigation and warned that the committee could consider writing its report without their input.

The firms had said the alleged letter of allotment issued to the two public schools by either the Commissioner of Lands or the City Council of Nairobi were ‘worthless pieces of paper that cannot confer legitimate title to them’.

Allotment letter

But the managers of Ruaraka Secondary had told the MPs that the institution was issued with an allotment letter in 1999 and was in the process of acquiring a title deed.

Mburu noted that the Government had ignored court judgements that declared that the schools were occupying the land illegally.

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