Kabogo, Mwaura lead demo to reclaim Kiambu college land

Former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo and nominated Senator Isaac Mwaura Thursday led students of Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology (Kist) and locals in a protest against the alleged grabbing of the institution’s Sh32 billion land by the board of trustees.

The protesters, who also included rights activists, marched from Kiambu Town to that institution’s gate where Mr Kabogo handed a petition to the principal, Mr Michael Ndung’u, demanding that the land, which according to a survey map has been subdivided into 11 portions, be returned.

Mr Kabogo issued a seven-day notice to the board of trustees to have “the mess” corrected, failure to which he would seek court redress to ensure the land is reverted to the technical institute, saying a few people will not be allowed to take over the land “through the back door.”

LAND TRANSFER

The transfer of the land was done in December 2013 when Mr Kabogo was the Kiambu governor.

The board, through its chairman, Mr Kimani Mathu, has been arguing that all the 192 acres belonging to the institution were intact and that “not even an inch of the land has been alienated for any other purpose.”

He has also been dismissing claims of grabbing as “malicious and highly defamatory.”

However, Mr Kabogo insisted that the survey map showed otherwise, claiming that there was evidence that new title numbers had been issued. He demanded that the Survey of Kenya cancels them in favour of the school.

Senator Mwaura said: “We have rejected the grabbing of land belonging to Kist and we will not allow that to happen.”

He challenged Governor Ferdinand Waititu to pronounce himself of the matter.