State orders revocation of Oloololo Game Ranch title  

The government has ordered the Chief Land Registrar to revoke a title deed for a company which has been in illegal possession of community land in the Mara for decades.

In a Kenya Gazette notice dated March 1 2019, the National Lands Commission ordered the cancellation of Oloololo Game Ranch Ltd's title, which resulted from a fraudulent adjudication of Oloololo section in Trans Mara West, Narok County.

It further ordered that the vast Mara Triangle measuring approximately 26,100ha and be reverted to the Siria Maasai community. 

The notice stemmed from a claim lodged by Ilkarrekeshe Group Trust, a self-help group representing three group ranches, which had spawned a two-decade court battle over the parcel of land.

"The claim is allowed. Title (s) (if any) resulting from the adjudication process of Oloololo section be cancelled specifically, the title to the respondent (Oloololo Game Ranch Ltd) be revoked as earlier intended by the Chief Land Registrar," read the notice which also directed the lands ministry, the director of land adjudication and settlement to implement the directive.

MARA RIVER

According to documents available at the ministry of land, the land was degazetted from the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in 1976 after a delegation from the Siria Maasai community visited the then President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and requested to be allowed access to the Mara River to water their animals.

The President's directed the then Lands Permanent Secretary Mathews Ogutu to allocate a 10km stretch of land to be held in trust by the community.

This directive was implemented, as shown in a letter signed by the PS, but because a title deed was not immediately issued, the rightful owners would later be swindled of their land by powerful cartels.

When he visited the land in dispute in 2012, then Lands Minister James Orengo asserted that the land was never issued to an individual or a company but to the community.

POLITICIANS

Land records show that a title deed, Narok/Transmara/Oloololo/1 was issued on June 22, 1993 in the name of Oloololo Game Ranch Ltd, a company owned two wealthy Narok politicians.

The two have illegally profiteered from the rates and park fees paid by three lodges built on it; Kichwa Tembo, Bateleur Camp and Skyship Ballooning.

Protests over the illegal land acquisition date back to 2003 when the community was evicted from the land to pave way for wildlife conservation.

A young man was killed in the night raid which saw property worth millions of shillings burnt to ashes.

Members of Kimintet, Oloirien and Kerinkani group ranches have welcomed the commission's decision.