Auctioneers pounce on KWS assets in compensation row

Law Society of Kenya Council member lawyer Kipkoech Ng’etich at Lake Nakuru National Park on June 7, 2019. KWS have seven days to clear Sh40 million owed to the Rift Valley Agriculture Contructors. [Harun Wathari]

Vehicles belonging to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) worth estimated tens of millions of shillings have been attached by an auctioneer.

Saddabri Auctioneers, acting on instructions from Rift Valley Agricultural Contractors Limited, attached the property on Friday.

The auctioneers, accompanied by lawyer Kipkoech Ng’etich, acting for Rift Valley Agricultural Contractors Ltd, raided KWS offices in Nakuru where the vehicles were attached.

The attachment was as a result of a High Court ruling in Nakuru that awarded the contractors Sh31.5 million for damages to their crops caused in May 2000.

Wild animals, including wildebeests, zebras and antelopes invaded in droves a plantation of wheat and barley and destroyed 1,689 hectares of the crops belonging to Rift Valley Agricultural Contractors Limited.

The estimated value of the damaged crops and input was pleaded as Sh64,160,130.

Efforts by Rift Valley Agricultural Contractors Ltd to have the government body compensate them for what the court determined as special and exemplary damages have yielded little results, forcing the company to attach the parastatal’s property.

Rift Valley Agricultural Contractors Limited had leased land from the local community near Masai Mara National Reserve and planted wheat and barley.

Wild animals then descended on the farm after damaging the eight-strand barbed wire fence and grazed on the over 1,600 hectares of wheat and 400 hectares of barley.

Reports were prepared by Kenya Breweries Limited, Wheat Growers Association, Ololulunga Divisional Agricultural Officer, the Ministry of Agriculture, Nakuru District Commissioner, among others. 

Several letters were also exchanged between the contractors and institutions regarding the loss.

Shem Shikuku, then Narok South District Agricultural Officer produced two reports prepared by the Ololulunga Divisional Agricultural Officer dated June 9, 2000 and June 30, 2000 and one prepared by the District Agricultural and Livestock Extension Officer, Narok, the combined effect of which is that the Rift Valley Agricultural Contractors Limited suffered losses as a result of the invasion of the farm by wild animals.

KWS in defence said it was wrongly sued and they are not liable as it was not negligent, or in breach of any statutory duty.