Deaths revive bitter row over 700-acre farm

What you need to know:

  • They said the inhabitants had merely leased the land under Muroki Estate Ltd for a 10-year period beginning early 1970s, only to claim ownership.
  • Mr Jama said the court ruled in their favour and the inhabitants appealed but lost and refused to honour an eviction order.
  • The group accused politicians in the region of inciting the locals against them by branding them foreigners because of their Somali origin.

The killing of six people on a disputed 702-acre piece of land in Trans Nzoia on Saturday has re-ignited a bitter row between two groups.

Inhabitants claimed they killed the six after they began burning houses in an attempt to evict them from Mengo farm in Saboti constituency.

A group associated with Mengo Farm Ltd, the original owners, said it will not re-lent in its push to re-claim the land.

They said the inhabitants had merely leased the land under Muroki Estate Ltd for a 10-year period beginning early 1970s, only to claim ownership. “They had even failed to pay the lease fee as per the agreement, prompting us to move to court,” said Mr Mohamed Ali Jama, the group’s spokesman. “We’ve had a 15-year legal battle.”

Mr Jama said the court ruled in their favour and the inhabitants appealed but lost and refused to honour an eviction order. “We were given vacation orders by the court in 2007, 2011 and 2014, which have never been implemented by the police.”

INCITING

The group accused politicians in the region of inciting the locals against them by branding them foreigners because of their Somali origin.

“It’s unfair to call us foreigners when this land was bought by our fathers in 1964. All we want is our land as ruled by the court,” Mr Jama said.

He said the politicians were claiming that the land had no documentation yet they owned a title deed which was with their lawyers.

“Three of those killed are grandsons of the founders of the company that bought this land in 1964, yet they have been branded intruders,” he said. The group said it would return to court over the matter.

However, the inhabitants dismissed the group as brokers out to “illegally” evict them. Former councillor Geoffrey Khisa Wafula, who is an inhabitant, said Mengo Farm Ltd owners had sold the land to them in early 1970s.

“We had initially agreed a figure of Sh1.1 million but it was later raised to Sh7 million, which we paid in instalments up to 2,000.”

He said they had documents from the land control board proving transfer of the land from the original owners to Muroki Estate Ltd.