State wants Angata Barikkoi residents to register land leases

The tense meeting at Angata Barikoi primary school in Trasmara south going on. Top police security officers led by IG Douglas Kanja and Director of DCI Mohammed Amin in attendance alongside a section of Rift valley politicians. [George Sayagie/Standard]

The government now wants communities residing in the troubled Angata Barikkoi area in Trans Mara to formally register land leases with the Land Registrar to avoid conflicts.

According to Lands Principal Secretary Nixon Korir recent conflicts witnessed in the area over the disputed Angata Barikkoi/Moyoi land were as a result of  disagreements regarding leases.

Addressing members of the National Assembly Departmental Committee on National Administration and Internal Security,  Korir explained that in 1996, a parcel of land, No. Transmara/Moyoi, approximately 2,561.44 hectares, was registered to the Angata Barikkoi Farmers Cooperative Society.

He stated that the members of this society, who currently occupy the land, informally leased it to the neighbouring Kuria community from the Angata Barikkoi registration section (Kipsigis community) for cultivation.

However, the Kuria community filed claims of historical land injustices with the National Lands Commission in 2017, asserting that the entire Moyoi registered section belongs to them.

Korir said the situation has led to occasional conflicts between the two communities, often under the pretext of cattle theft.

He stated that the Land Registrar and Subcounty Surveyor were in the process of implementing a court order when they were attacked, and their vehicle was torched.

Before the incident, the officials had established a boundary between Moyoi and Angata Barikkoi registration sections and marked the extent of 1,500 acres of land to be excised from Trans Mara/Moyoi 2, as per the consent filed in civil case No. EC22 of 2020 in the Court of Appeal in Nakuru.

He further noted that during the land adjudication process in the Moyoi adjudication section, parcel No. Trans Mara/Moyoi 2, there was no recorded dispute in the area currently in conflict.

"The parcel of land became the subject of several court litigations after the titling of the Moyoi adjudication section," Korir added.

He appealed to the residents of the established adjudication section to elect members for the land adjudication committee. These members would help facilitate the adjudication process and encourage residents to make their claims to the recording officer.

Korir urged them to honour summonses to appear before demarcation officers, the land adjudication committee, the Arbitration Board, and the Land Adjudication officers.

Residents should also inspect the adjudication register once the adjudication section is published to identify and correct any incomplete entries.

Furthermore, he advised seeking the consent of the land adjudication officer before filing any land civil cases in the courts.

In April, tensions escalated when government surveyors allegedly attempted to carve out the Kipsigis' 1,500-acre portion from land that had registered title deeds. The land in question is claimed by 448 families who have been farming there for decades.

These families possess legitimate title deeds and have occupied the land since 2002, having been issued the deeds under former President Daniel Arap Moi.

Panic ensued among families when surveyors from the Ministry of Lands, land adjudication officers, and the Land Registrar from Kilgoris arrived and erected beacons, despite an existing court order.

This order, issued by Judge Cyprian Waswa of the Kilgoris Environment and Land Court, prohibited the government from interfering with the land until a petition filed by Samuel Kipkoros Cheruiyot and Philip Sigei on behalf of the families had been decided.

“The 448 plaintiffs in the suit shall remain in occupation of their parcels and shall not let, subdivide, or part with possession of the suit property,” the judge stated.

According to Practice Direction No. 28(K) of Gazette Notice No. 5178/2014, an order for maintaining the status quo is hereby issued pending the hearing of the applicant’s request dated.

This means that the registered owners shall remain so in the record and shall not subdivide or transfer the suit property, Trans Mara/Moyoi/2, to third parties.

The status quo orders are not intended to evict any party already in occupation, nor do they facilitate the invasion of the suit property by third parties at the behest of the plaintiffs or any other parties.