Leaders cautious on school land row
What you need to know:
- “We have to find a way of solving the dispute because we need the agency since it feeds children here and other parts of the country,” he told the Nation by phone.
- “We were allocated this land by the government, which issued us with a 99-year leasehold,” he said though he could not recall the date the leasehold was issued.
- He said during the land registration and consolidation at the time of the emergency, the community decided to give out the land to the Kenya Red Cross to continue taking care of the children.
A dispute over the ownership of land donated by the community for a school is turning out to be a leaders’ nightmare.
The land had been set aside for the construction of Dagoretti Special School. Later, a US-based relief agency — Feed The Children — which sponsors the school, was allocated the 12 acres on Kikuyu Road.
Political leaders now find themselves torn between supporting the school and the community, which is demanding the land.
One of them is Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru.
“We have to find a way of solving the dispute because we need the agency since it feeds children here and other parts of the country,” he told the Nation by phone.
The children attending the school depend on the agency. It sponsors the institution and feeds the learners. It has also built classrooms and a dormitory.
Several people have also been employed by the organisation. However, some residents say NGOs are not entitled to public land.
Feed The Children’s Operations Manager Collins Ngeiwa said the land belongs to Feed The Children.
ALLOCATED BY GOVERNMENT
“We were allocated this land by the government, which issued us with a 99-year leasehold,” he said though he could not recall the date the leasehold was issued.
The community began reclaiming the land when President Uhuru Kenyatta advised management of public schools to get title deeds for their institutions.
A local leader and retired cleric who once served as chairman of the school, the Rev Mumira Kamau, said the community donated the land during the State of Emergency in the 1950s.
“It was used by the British Red Cross, which took care of children orphaned by the Mau Mau war,” said the Rev Kamau.
He said during the land registration and consolidation at the time of the emergency, the community decided to give out the land to the Kenya Red Cross to continue taking care of the children.
It was not until the early 1990s that Feed The Children came to the place. The land belonged to the government, which was sponsoring the school and locals say they did not know when it was transferred to the agency.
