Squatters land case against State to be heard after 11-year delay

Members of the public watch as excavators bring down all houses in KCC village in Naivasha in the ongoing demolition exercise targeting all structures on railway land on February 15, 2021. [Antony Gitonga]

A case filed by 10,000 squatters against the State over 86,380 acres of land will be heard on March 3, a judge has directed. This will be 11 years after it was filed.

The dispute over the land at the border of Narok and Nakuru counties dates back to 1993 but has been pending in court since it was filed in 2011.

Members of the Kalimbula Investment Squatters have sued the State for blocking their occupation of the land.

The case has been mentioned more than 20 times, lawyers representing Kalimbula changed severally and the company’s first officials are now deceased.

The squatters want to possess the land that stretches from Mau Narok to Molo to Njoro areas within Nakuru.

The only witness (David Samoe) who took the stand on December 14, last year was stood down halfway through his testimony and the case adjourned to date.

High Court Judge Rachael Ng’etich stopped handling the case after she was transferred. She referred the matter to presiding Judge Joel Ngugi for reallocation.

Irregularly allocating land

In their case, the squatters sued the National Lands Commission (NLC) and the Attorney General and accused the agencies of irregularly allocating the land to strangers.

“Despite the plaintiffs (squatters) making relevant payments to the state, NLC illegally allocated the land to strangers, leaving genuine owners,” read their court documents.

The squatters also want Sh17.9 million as compensation for alleged money used to follow up on the land issue.

They claim they paid Sh1.9 million in October 1993, to be allocated the land and obtained consent to subdivide it from Nakuru District Land Control Board.

Further, they said the subdivision plan was prepared and approved by Physical Planning Development in the Ministry of Lands and Settlement and the County Council of Nakuru.

“The plaintiffs were issued with an allotment letter dated May 9, 2005, and were paying an annual rent of Sh637,000 to NLC,” read their case.

They allege that even after acquiring land that had been de-gazetted as forest, NLC refused to complete the allocation.

The case had been deferred for lack of State’s defence until January 2019, when Judge Ng’etich ordered mediation talks, noting the matter had dragged and there was the need for deliberations to end it.

On May 14, 2019 Lawyer John Githui, who was then representing the squatters told Deputy Registrar of the High Court Margaret Kyalo that NLC had agreed to compensate the squatters.

“We have the report presented in court from the annexed mediation. We came to a significant conclusion that the squatters have the right to be compensated,” said Githui.

However, in its reply filed last year, NLC disowned the claim by the members that it had agreed to compensate them.

NLC’s principal legal officer Callen Masaka said the land does not belong to the squatters. He dismissed claims that positive mediation talks had been held.

“The agency is not aware and was not involved in any admission agreement and no, it has not agreed to compensate the squatters,” he submitted.

Masaka said the mediation claim was a deliberate attempt by the squatters to create misleading impressions in court.

“NLC is not aware that the squatters applied to be allocated land, obtained consent to subdivide it, and that the physical planning department approved it,” he said.

He termed the case by the squatters as a non-starter, statute-barred and lacking cause of action.

The case will be mentioned on March 3 for reallocation.

Kalimbula Investment Squatters was started as a self-help group started in the 1980s.

The group registered squatters as members and grew to over 10,000 by the 1990s.

In October 1993, the group allegedly paid Sh1.9 million to be allocated 86,000 acres of land stretching from Nakuru to Narok Counties. 

An allotment letter dated May 9, 2005, was issued to them, with an annual rent of Sh637,000 to be paid to NLC.

Despite several out of court efforts, NLC allegedly refused to allocate the squatters land.