Buru Buru estate residents clash with secondary school over land dispute

Residents of Metro Villas estate in Buru Buru, Nairobi Monday clashed with representatives of a secondary school over a land ownership dispute.

The land in contention is a 25 metres access road used by both Buru Buru Girls Secondary School and the estate. It is owned by the school as indicated on the Certificate of Lease.

According to a letter from the Ministry of Lands, Metro Villas estate had been directed last week on Friday by Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu to remove their gate erected on the school's land within 48 hours.

"Failure to comply by February 2, 2015, the school has full authority to proceed and remove the said gate and further secure their entire land," warned the letter.

Monday, the school leased a bulldozer from the City Council of Nairobi to begin the demolition of the pavement outside the estate in preparation to erect a boundary wall.

However, the residents of Metro Villas stopped the move by forcibly removing and harassing the bulldozer operator as they chased him away.

Acting Deputy County Commissioner of Makadara sub-county Buxton Mayabi said there was a court ruling made in 2010 to the effect that the strip of land belonged to the school and that the issue was still in court.

"It is only a matter of time before the issue is sorted out. Only the modalities of how to go about it remains," said Mr Mayabi.

Court cases

Buru Buru Girls principal Consolata Kimuya alleged the estate had encroached the school's land. "The estate is using our road illegally. We need to put a stop to it," she said.

She stated that the school plans to elevate a boundary wall in front of the estate's gate to safeguard their land. "We want to safeguard the road and hope the Government will help us do so," she said.

Chairman of the school's board of management Austin Kitololo said the court was satisfied that the access road was part and parcel of the school land. "Since the court ruling was given in 2010, we have been asking Metro Villas to remove their gate, to no avail. We are going to put a wall on our land and nobody can stop us," he said.

But Metropolitan Hospital chief executive officer and developer at Metro Villas Kanyenje Gakombe said they have been having disputes with the school for five years about access to the residence.

"This is not the first time they have tried to put up a barrier and block our access," said Dr Gakombe. "Over the last five years, we have tried to resolve the matter and have two ongoing court cases," he added.

According to Gakombe, the school allegedly assured the judge they would not attempt to block the residence until the case was heard and determined.

He claimed that the county government and Ministry of Education suggested a solution to split the access road, giving each party 12.5metres.

"We accepted that solution and offered to build the school a replacement road, which it declined," he said.