Family wins back land grabbed by church group

Three members of a family have won back their ancestral land illegally grabbed by a church-based organisation.

Jedidah Wangechi, Simon Muthoga and Elizabeth Wairimu finally got back their land when Senior Resident Magistrate MN Munyendo ordered the trustees of Africa Inland Church to vacate the one-and-a-half-acre land located in Nyeri town.

“It is ordered that the trustees be evicted from the land within six months and the family be allowed access to it,” ruled Munyendo.

The AIC trustees had utilised the disputed land to construct a nursery school and children’s home with over 200 orphans.

The family claimed the parcel was their ancestral land registered in their mother’s name.

According to them, their late father Isaac Kiiru in 1981 had initially agreed to donate and sell some part of his land for construction of a nursery school but on condition that the county council compensates him with another land for his children.

The church organisation, in its defence, stated that they legally bought the land from Kiiru and started building the children’s home in 1985.

Registered title

They argued that the family had never bothered them ever since but colluded with some people after their father died in 1996 to have the title registered in their name after which they invaded the school to reclaim the land.

The magistrate, however, ruled that in the absence of a title deed to show the church organisation owned the land, it cannot claim ownership since a search at the Lands Registry showed it was the family which has the genuine title.

“The organisation has proved that there was a sale transaction between them and the late but the facts show that they occupied the wrong land.

“They were sold the land the late was compensated and not the family ancestral land,” ruled Munyendo.

Munyendo added that the family had clearly demonstrated they own the land, and that it was the church organisation that encroached on it leading to the protracted legal battle.

She ordered the family be paid Sh50,000 for illegal occupation of their land.