NLC links self-help groups to land grabbing in Nairobi

The National Land Commission (NLC) has accused some self-help groups of being behind land grabbing in Eastlands, Nairobi County.

In response to an investigation by Buruburu police, NLC chairman Muhammad Swazuri claimed the cartels have been circulating fake determinations purportedly issued by the commission.

He said the cartels usually identify prime undeveloped land and present themselves as squatters who need the commission to settle them, thereby disinheriting the genuine owners of the parcels of land.

This practice has previously been more pronounced at the Coast, where landowners regularly suffer attacks and lose their land in broad daylight.

SQUATTERS
The commission said individuals eyeing other people’s land regularly mobilise people known as “professional squatters” to invade and encroach on private property and claim that their ancestral land has been grabbed.

In a recent case in Nairobi, an ownership tussle pitted Uchumi supermarket against a group of squatters over prime undeveloped land opposite the Kasarani sports complex.

After an expensive and drawn-out litigation, the case was determined in favour of the supermarket, with the so-called squatters dismissed as imposters.

INSIDERS
Dr Swazuri, in his letter dated February 27, has enclosed a February 23 report by the director of investigations at NLC, confirming the extent of the blatant fraudulent activities.

The report says the cartels are working with key people within the commission to issue the fake determinations over the Nairobi/Block/82/7813-7855 land in Donholm estate.

“The purported determination is a forgery and cannot be attested to by the commission,” the report says.

In law, self-help groups have no legal capacity to own land.

The police have launched investigations into the activities of the group.