Now Ruto sued over land tussle

A victim of the post election violence has taken Eldoret North MP William Ruto to court for allegedly grabbing his land.

Mr Adrian Gilbert Muteshi now wants the court to give orders to preserve the land in question located in Uasin Gishu allegedly grabbed during the chaos.

He claims he was driven out of his land at the height of the violence.

High Court judge Lady Justice Hannah Okwengu gave temporary orders stopping the suspended Higher Education minister from dealing with the piece of land in question.

In his suit papers, he says he identified the land measuring 100 acres in 1968 that previously belonged to a white settler whom he identified as a Mr Edmund so that he can purchase it.  It is situated in the Kaptabei scheme.

And in May the same year, he made an application to the then Lands minister Jackson Angaine seeking his approval to purchase the piece of land.

This application was approved on October 3, 1968 after paying the required amount plus development money, he says.

He also says he signed a sale and loan agreement with the settlement fund trustees at the same time.

He was expected to repay the loan over a period of 30 years.

And after fully paying his loan he was given the title to the land in question on March 17, 1989, he says.

He practiced farming on the piece of land until 1992 but his activities were temporarily interrupted due to the tribal clashes.

Mr Muteshi told the court that after the 1992 clashes things went back to normal and he continued with his farming activities which was unfortunately halted when post election violence broke out in 2007.

“My farm was targeted as were all non- Kalenjin owned properties and same were pillaged, livestock stolen and all farm equipment converted,” says the farmer in his sworn affidavit.

He alleges that he got information later from some of his workers that the people who invaded his farm had been brought by Mr Ruto.

However, he declined to disclose the names of the employees who gave him the information saying doing so would cause them grief.

He later also learnt that the land in question had been purchased by Mr Ruto from Ms Dorothy Jemutai Yator who had subdivided it into nine titles.

His attempts to carry out official search on his title in Eldoret lands registry has been unsuccessful as the staff were uncooperative, he says.

He informed the court that he even wrote to the commissioner of lands on March 4, 2010 complaining and seeking assistance to know who had wrongfully sub-divided and claimed ownership of his land.

His advocates, he says, have even sent letters to Mr Ruto but he declined to respond to them.

However, he says, he received calls from a man called Hosea Ruto who allegedly introduced himself as Mr Ruto’s brother or cousin to convince him to settle the matter out of court.

And for justice to be done he wants the land in question which he believes is now worth Sh50 million be preserved pending determination of his case.

He believes he is a victim of fraud, manipulation of government process and unfair treatment.

The case will now come up for hearing on December 15.