Tension as different clans from Narok, Kajiado both claim Nguruman

The dispute over the 67,000-acre ranch that gave rise to a verbal joust between Interior Secretary Joseph ole Lenku and lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi has sucked in the county governments of Kajiado and Narok.

The long-running dispute, now in court, has evolved from conflicts over local, commercial, legal and security interests.

The controversy has been going on for almost three decades but it grabbed public attention last Sunday when Mr Ahmednasir — lawyer to one of the parties — took to Twitter accusing Mr Lenku of stage-managing an occupation of the ranch, a claim the Interior CS has rejected.
At odds are different entities that have laid claim to the expansive ranch.

Nguruman Limited and Shompole Group Ranch are owners of two adjoining parcels of land 26,993 hectares and 50,000 hectares, respectively.

Most of the land belonging to Nguruman is in Narok County while that of Shompole is primarily in Kajiado County.

The actual boundary between their properties has been in dispute for years as both ranches were formed by an amalgamation of several ranches.

Maasais living on disputed land in Shompole and Ol Kiramatian in Kajiado County, which is also claimed by Nguruman Ltd —a company whose proprietor is South African—suspect foul play over the manner in which the land was acquired from them.

Controversies relating to land ownership in Iloodo-Kilani, Kajiado County, started in the 1960s after a section of the land was adjudicated.

Land adjudication is the process through which existing rights in a particular parcel of land are finally and authoritatively ascertained.

The land adjudicating officer for Kajiado District, Mr T J Muraguri, had on September 10, 1969, made a declaration that the Loodokelani area in Kajiado District, which comprised nine group ranches, be an adjudication section.

However, only seven group ranches were adjudicated, leaving out the Pakaase and Entasopia Irrigation Schemes.

In 1972, the government set aside a section of the unadjudicated land for tourism activities.

According to Joseph Masiaya, director of Shompole Group Ranch, “an adjudication committee of 16 people who were all civil servants was formed to spearhead the plan.”

However, instead of registering the land for tourism, the officials registered it in their own names on June, 19, 1975.

Later in 1982, they reported to the land registrar in Nairobi that the title in question had been lost.

The registrar then issued Gazette Notice No 3611 dated October 1, 1982, giving a 60-day notice for him to issue another title for the same land.

The notice was unchallenged during that period, and the registrar issued another title bearing the same title number as the first, but the acreage changed from 6,970 to 26, 993 hectares after the amalgamation of neighbouring local ranches.

“The individual names were, however, replaced with the name, Nguruman Kamorora Group Ranch,” says Mr Masiaya.

Mr Isaac Kiresian, chair of the Shompole Group Ranch, alleges that two of the 16 civil servants declined to be part of the Nguruman Kamorora Group Ranch, and the title was thus owned by 14 people who then entered into a lease agreement with a South African investor, Mr Hermanus Philipus Steyn for a 20-year period with effect from 1986.

“Within the lease period, the Nguruman Kamorora Group Ranch was dissolved, prompting a further adjustment where the title was registered as Nguruman Ltd which is the name it bears to this day,” says Mr Kiresian.

He further alleges that Mr Steyn later acquired majority shares from the 14 members of the Nguruman Kamorora Group Ranch in unknown circumstances.

Mr Joseph Munge, the secretary of the Shompole Group Ranch, alleges that local residents continued to live in the land unaware of the changes in ownership.

But, says Mr Munge, some local people that had supposedly been living on the land were accused of trespass since the size of the land in question had increased from 6,970 hectares to 26,993 hectares.

The matter relating to trespass was challenged and, in a judgment dated December 2, 2009, the High Court ordered the eviction of those said to have trespassed.

An attempt to evict the trespassers was abandoned after the security team supposedly decided it was not practical to implement the order due to the large number of people occupying the land. 

But Nguruman Limited is seeking to recover the award by the court, and in an advertisement placed in the local dailies on October 23, 2014, an auction firm stated that there was an intention to sell the Shompole and Kiramatian Group Ranches.

SOUGHT TITLE REVOCATION

“The Maasai believe that selling their land would displace of over 40,000 people,” Mr Munge says.

The Shompole Group Ranch members have already filed their complaint with the National Land Commission on behalf of the local people, seeking revocation of the title owned by Nguruman Ltd.

However, in the suit papers, Nguruman Ltd says that it has been engaged in litigation with the neighbouring Shompole Group Ranch from early 1991 in respect of claims that they Shompole were the owners of the Pakase area, within Nguruman Ltd’s property.

Nguruman Ltd says the Shompole Group Ranch members have forcefully occupied the land in the mistaken belief that the said area forms part of their property.

“The boundary dispute was resolved by the Kajiado District Land Registrar as long ago as 27 September 1991, through a court-mandated and statute-sanctioned process,” says Nguruman Ltd, adding that it had been determined that the claims by Shompole Group Ranch were unfounded since the boundary between the adjacent parcels of land was the Narok-Kajiado District boundary.

On November 25, 1991, the Narok Magistrate’s court issued an injunction permanently restraining members of the Shompole Group Ranch from allegedly continuing to trespass.

Subsequent court decisions over the years have been made in favour of Nguruman Ltd, which has maintained that the Shompole Group Ranch has defied the orders.

The security committee previously prepared a report indicating that there were approximately 600 families of the Lodokilani clan, a sub group of the Maasai linked to Shompole Group Ranch.

Police noted there were developments in the area including markets, and primary schools and it would require a large number of officers to carry out the eviction. Besides, there were fears of bloodshed.  

“The security committee therefore recommends to the Honourable Court to get a better approach to avert the bloodshed and enormous use of state resources in transporting, feeding and paying allowances for the personnel,” said Stephen Njoroge, secretary to the team, in the report dated August 13, 2003.

The storm has drawn in Maasais from both Narok and Kajiado.

The land has become a centre of dispute between Loita Maasai in Narok County and the Iloodo Kilani from Kajiado who have both claimed a stake in the land.

Tension is now rising between the Iloodo-Kilani clan in Kajiado and Loita clan in Narok after the former invaded and occupied Nguruman Ltd in Narok, causing anxiety.

Narok governor Samuel ole Tunai this week condemned the move by Kajiado residents saying the group ranch measuring 26,993 hectares land is squarely in Narok and is the property of the Loita people in Narok South Sub County.  

 “Residents of Loita have moved to court in an effort to seek court orders to evict the “white settler” from their farm. We are not ready to estart another problem with Kajiado residents,” Governor Tunai said.

Mr Tunai accuses a section of Kajiado leaders led by Governor David Nkedienye, and MPs Moses ole Sakuda, Joseph ole Nkaisery of being behind the illegal invasion of the ranch.

“The land is in Narok County, and I have written to the National Land Commission and the Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu to give guidance on the same,” said Mr Tunai.

POLITICAL OVERTONES

Mr Tunai argues that although the forceful invasion of the ranch last Sunday was portrayed as a spontaneous uprising of the residents of Shompole protesting a court order to evict them and recapturing its ancestral land, the controversy has political overtones.

According to documents presented in a Machakos court on November 3, Mr Abdullahi accused Mr Lenku, NLC boss Mohamed Swazuri and the Kajiado governor of inciting members of the Shompole and Ol Kiramatian group ranches to invade and take over the land belonging to Nguruman.

Trouble started last week following an attempt, through a court order by Mr Steyn of Nguruman Ltd, to evict the residents of Shompole Group Ranch and Ol Kiramatian from their piece of land.

Documents seen by Sunday Nation show that Mr Steyn,, a South African of German origin,  went to court seeking the eviction of the people from the land, and is demanding more than Sh800 million in compensation for trespass.

Those in the Shompole and Olkiramatian Group Ranches in Kajiado side were supposedly unhappy with the eviction attempts and invaded the Kamorora/Ngurumani Group Ranch in Narok County, evicting the owner and his workers. 

FRAUDULENTLY ACQUIRED

According to the Loita people, the land was fraudulently acquired by Mr Steyn who came from Tanzania after a similar standoff over land there.

The chairman of the group Mr John ole Nairowua alleges that Nguruman Ltd took the land from them on the pretence of setting up a tourist lodge and a game sanctuary in 1986.

“The lodge in the ranch mainly hosts powerful personalities and well-connected people in government, and the owners of the land do not benefit from it,” said Mr Nairowua.

Mr Steyn has also had his own battles.

In 2012, Nguruman Ltd appealed to Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo to disarm two Danes alleged to be occupying part of the ranch at the behest of powerful Kenyan politicians and former MPs.

Mr Jan Bonde Nielsen and his son Peter Bonde Nielsen were accused in court of armed occupation of part of the ranch where they were running an exclusive resort patronised by high-end clients.

Court documents show that the older Mr Nielsen had trained at least 64 rangers in “musketry and other manoeuvres” ostensibly for wildlife conservation.

The Dane had a history of run-ins with authorities in Europe for fraud that stretch back to the 1970s and has once been declared bankrupt.

The accusations against Mr Nielsen were publicised in Parliament in March 2011 by then Gichugu MP Martha Karua, but the House ran its full term before a resolution was reached.  

Former Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere had ordered an investigation into the matter, culminating in a recommendation for immediate disarmament, but this never happened.

“We have knocked on every door in this country, and no one has come to our rescue about the armed occupation of our land.

"We want the firearms removed from our property,” Nguruman chairman Moses Ololouaya told Sunday Nation last year.

On the other side, Kajiado leaders have called on the 40,000 people living on the Shompole and Olkiramatian group ranch to stay put and have been accused of inciting the people against Nguruman Ltd.

“How can land, close to a whole division belong to a few people? We do not care about the court order.

"We will stand by our people and make sure that not even an inch is taken,” said Kajiado East Constituency MP Peris Tobiko.

The leaders argue the people risks destitution after the Court of Appeal endorsed an earlier order given in 2009 to evict them and affirm the land title in favour of Nguruman Ltd.

Addressing the Press on Thursday evening at a Nairobi hotel, political leaders from Kajiado County — led by Governor Nkedienye, Kajiado Central MP Mr Nkaissery, Kajiado East MP Peris Tobiko — said the land that stretches towards Loita Hills is their ancestral home and Nguruman Ltd acquired it irregularly, with the help of some local leaders.

“How can land close to a whole division belong to a few people? We do not care about the court order.

"We will stand by our people and make sure that not even an inch of the land is taken,” said Mrs Tobiko.