Visit disputed land before ruling, judge asked

By MURIMI MWANGI

Nyeri, Kenya: A group of 400 farmers want a Nyeri court to visit a contentious piece of land they claim was stolen from them during the colonial regime.

The farmers, who claim to be representing a generation of over 3,000 people, asked the court to visit the land, located at Mathari, Nyeri County, before entering judgment on their petition.

Through lawyer Wanyiri Kihoro, the farmers said the visit to the land, currently owned by the Consolata Catholic Mission, would be instrumental in assisting the court enter a fair judgment.

Nyeri Environment and Land Court Judge Anthony Ombwayo adjourned the case to March 19, when he would issue a ruling.

In the suit, the farmers have sued the Attorney General, the Nyeri County Government, the Catholic Diocese of Nyeri and two priests, over 2,761 acres of land.

They claimed that the land was alienated from their forefathers between 1956 and 1965, and handed to an Italian missionary centre, which later passed it on to the Catholic Church at Independence.

False claimants

Yesterday, another farmers’ group from the area applied to be enjoined in the case, for among other reasons, an alleged takeover of the land by illegitimate claimants.

The Nyeri Hill Farm Maganjo Land Owners Self-Help Group, through an affidavit sworn by its chairman Samuel Githiga, said it’s “apprehensive that there may be misrepresentation of facts.”

“Some of the petitioners herein especially those from Kihuyo have no claim over the land as they were allocated land, which they currently occupy,” claimed Githiga.

Githiga said the group representing 314 people had filed a similar petition in court, and that some of the present petitioners were applicants in the earlier suit.

The application was allowed and the case continues on March 19.