Women group to sue State over land dispute

By Ramadhan Rajab

A storm is brewing between the Government and a self-help group over prime property ownership.

Even after a court resolved the dispute in their favour, Wilson Mitumba Women’s Group of 624 members have been barred from accessing their half-developed 27 hectares land, allocated to them by retired President Moi on November 1, 1990.

Armed with an allotment letter issued by the Ministry of Lands, last year’s court judgement in May, a decree and the land title deed, five members of the group said their efforts to reclaim the property near Wilson Airport — West Park Housing Project — has earned them incarceration at Langata Police Station.

The angry members, who spoke to The Standard at I&M offices, threatened to hold a demonstration as well as disrupt ongoing construction at the site if the Government does not respect the court judgement and decree.

"We have all the necessary documents to prove that we genuinely own the West Park Estate that now the Government has illegally grabbed for a police housing project," said Joseph Mburu Gitau, the association’s chairman.

"It is ironical that a Government that is fighting land grabbers is the same one using grabbing as the only way to intimidate the voiceless. But we won’t keep quiet and let our sweat and savings disappear," he added.

Mr Gitau noted that police officers had been deployed at the site to bar them from setting foot on the land.

Copies of documents within our possession show the group moved to court when police allocated themselves the incomplete houses in 2005. The documents also show the Government contracted a developer to complete the houses on behalf of the Police Department.

"We knew our courts would be respected. We filed High Court case No 673 of 2005 challenging the decision by the Government and police to take possession of the plot, but it seems ours was a waste of time," Gitau said.

In May last year, the High Court in its judgement noted that the applicant (the group) had sufficiently demonstrated they own the property.

"Since the State Counsel has said in court the Government does not lay claim to the property, I hold that the applicants are entitled to the property since it is still registered in their name," the ruling given by Justice Nyamu reads in part.

They further obtained a decree ordering the police and the contractors to vacate the land. They served the Police Commissioner, the Attorney General and the Commissioner of Lands with the order through a press advertisement.