Families in court to stop county government access road Nyeri

Daniel Kimondo Kiiria and Joseph Munene at their farm in Chinga Ward in Othaya,Nyeri ,on 19 December 2019.Two families want county government stopped from creating an access road in their two parcels of land without compensating them. [Photo: Kibata Kihu/Standard]

Two families in Chinga Ward in Nyeri want the county government stopped from creating an access road through their land.

Daniel Kimondo Kiiria and Joseph Munene have, on behalf of the families, sued claiming due process was not followed in annexing their land for the project.

They claim on March 16, 2014, the county government, led by Chinga MCA Paul Ngiria, invaded their land Chinga/Kiaguthu 679 and 740, without their consent.

MCA instruction

It was on the instruction of the area MCA, the two noted, that a tractor owned by the county government entered and dug their land.

“The MCA arrogantly stated the land belonged to the county government,” the plaintiffs told the court through lawyer M K Kiminda.

But in its response, the county justified its action, accusing Kiiria and Munene of encroaching a road reserve that had been in existence since 1997.

Foot path

“Since then, the plaintiff embarked on the process of encroaching on the road, reducing it to a foot path.

"This led to members of the public lodging a complaint, including at the office of the county commissioner Nyeri South."

On March 19, 2014, Nyeri Environment and Land court issued orders restraining the county and the MCA from creating a road through the families' parcel of land pending the hearing of the suit.

Last May 30, Justice Lucy Waithaka ordered the Nyeri land registrar to visit the parcels and determine the boundaries within 30 days.

But the orders were ignored.

The resilient respondents, however, said in the event the road was not made the public would suffer prejudice as they would not be able to access public facilities like schools and churches.

“The law cannot allow a situation where over 10 parcels of land are without an access road,” the respondents explained.

Suffer much

The families, the county observed, would not suffer much, since the road had already been demarcated and they could still be compensated for damage