Court stops Ngong Hills evictions

More than 600 squatters on Ngong Hills got a temporary reprieve when a High Court judge stopped their eviction.

Mr Justice Fred Ochieng gave orders on condition that they will not build permanent structures on the piece of land in dispute.

The order means the Kenya Forest Service will not evict them until September 21 when the case will be heard.

On Friday’s decision arose out of an application by the residents of Olteyiani location seeking to stop eviction from what they call their ancestral land.

The group told the judge that they were lawful residents of Olteyiani sub-location by virtue of being sons and daughters of the land.

The said they had suffered historical injustices and their land taken away by successive regimes pushing them into the current settlement.

“It is only Maasai land which has become the great target of successive governments for acquisition with the results that they are rendered destitute in their own land,” the group said.

The Ngong Hills, they said, were gazetted as crown land in 1949 with most settlers being the Maasai. And in 1963 the Ngong Hills were degazetted and re-gazetted as trust land under the jurisdiction of the Ol-Kejuado County Council.

The group claims the council allocated part of the hill to the Keekonyoike clan, which was residing there. They noted that in 1982 the then President Daniel Moi set the land aside for a human settlement and grazing.

In 2005, they said, President Mwai Kibaki confirmed that the land in question is indeed rightfully theirs.

The judge directed the Kenya Forest Service to file its response in 14 days. The case will be heard on September 21.