Nanyuki military land demarcated after Swazuri resolved ownership dispute

National Land Commission Chairman Muhammad Swazuri

A team from the Ministry of Lands has been dispatched to demarcate military land in Nanyuki.

This is after National Land Commission Chairman Muhammad Swazuri declared the Kenya Defence Forces the legal owners.

Hundreds of squatters had laid claim to the 1,600-acre land located in Kanyoni village, Nanyuki ward.

Laikipia County Commissioner Onesmus Kyatha told The Standard that surveyors were locating the land’s boundary.

“The team will be marking the fixed boundary and locate beacons because some could be missing," said Mr Kyatha.

The land has been a source of a long-running dispute between the squatters and the soldiers for over 60 years.

Before Prof Swazuri declared the military the rightful owner of the land, there were six mother title deeds that had been allocated to private developers.

The titles were, however, recalled by the commission.

During a meeting with squatters in July 2018, Swazuri pledged that the Government would resettle the squatters on alternative land.

Swazuri said the Lands Act prohibited allocation of public land reserved for security to private developers, adding that the army had been using the territory as a buffer zone. He pointed out that the gazettement of KDF's ownership was done in 1957.