Mbo-I-Kamiti shareholders want property sale stopped

One of the coffee estates owned by Mbo-I-Kamiti company in Kiambu. Deliberate delays in the processing of title deeds and well planned looting of property by greedy officials are to blame for the chaos rocking land buying companies, interviews with industry players show. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • Chairman of the shareholders Evanson Thiong’o said that there was a group of people purporting to sell land on behalf of the shareholders.
  • He termed media reports that the company had distributed their last property Twiga Estate to about 8000 shareholders and that the company was now being dissolved as false.
  • The shareholders who met in Kiambu Town had their share certificates with them.
  • The land buying company was founded in early 1970s to settle farmhands who had worked on white settler farms and widows of Mau Mau freedom fighters.

Shareholders of the Mbo-I-Kamiti Farmers Company Limited have asked the Kiambu County government to stop the sale or exchange of all property owned by the company.

Speaking in Kiambu Town, chairman of the shareholders Evanson Thiong’o said that there was a group of people purporting to sell land on behalf of the shareholders. These people, he said, were not genuine but conmen.

Mr Thiong’o added that Governor William Kabogo had assured the shareholders that their rights would be protected and he would ensure land and other properties were divided equally among all members.

“The company owns billions of shillings in property and a few people cannot wake up one day and say the company has been wound up. A shareholders meeting was not called nor were books of accounts read as expected when a company is winding up,” said Mr Thiongo.

TWIGA ESTATE

Mr Thiong’o said that earlier in the week, they read media reports that the company had distributed their last property Twiga Estate to about 8000 shareholders and that the company was now being dissolved, a report he termed as false.

“We want the county government, together with President Uhuru Kenyatta who is from Kiambu County, to put on hold the trading of all property owned by Mbo-I-Kamiti and allow for time to make a list of all the property and the members to benefit from it so that there can be equal and fair division of the property,” he added.

The shareholders said they did not want to hold demonstrations over the injustice being meted against them and asked the government to intervene on their behalf, since most of them were elderly.

GENUINE CERTIFICATES

They said the genuine share certificates for the company were yellow in colour, and the list of genuine shareholders was contained in a hidden register, but the alleged conmen were using blue share certificates.

The shareholders who met in Kiambu Town had their share certificates with them.

The company owned nine pieces of land: Ormorogi (Naivasha), Twiga estate and Bloodgate estate (Gatundu/Thika) and Anmer, Kiura, Kiroma, Matropi, Kabazi and Loresho estates (Kiambu).

Treasurer Rose Njeri asked the county government committee on land to intervene in the matter.

“We did not know about the balloting for Twiga estate by shareholders, we just heard about it through the media,” she said.

Ms Njeri said the company was a great investment, owning tractors, lorries, saloon cars, coffee mills and pieces of land but was milked dry by a few greedy individuals.

FOUNDED IN 1970S

The land buying company was founded in early 1970s to settle farmhands who had worked on white settler farms and widows of Mau Mau freedom fighters.

Over the years it has been steeped in controversy due to leadership wrangles and looting of company property. This has resulted in the killing of six of its directors in cold blood. Police said the murders were not ordinary crime and that they resulted from internal rivalries.

At one time, the company had some of the best coffee, dairy and tea farms in Kiambu and Naivasha and earned millions of shillings from them.

Company directors are said to have used its title deeds to secure bank loans ostensibly to revive the company but the loans would remain unserviced.

This led to the auctioning of company land to recover the loans.