Ruto's luxurious Kilgoris home now his favourite for hosting dignitaries

President William Ruto hosts Ghana’s President-elect John Mahama at his Kilgoris home, Narok county, on December 29, 2024. [PCS]

President William Ruto is known to have four private residences, in Nairobi, Uasin Gishu, Taita Taveta counties. But his newest gem, in Narok, has been thrust into the national limelight in the recent past.

Ruto has of late chosen his palatial home in Kilgoris, Narok County, as his favourite place where he has spent the end year holiday with members of his family for the last two years and also hosted official guests on various occasions.

The vast property that was once owned by former Vice President the late Joseph Murumbi has now become the preferred place where the President has hosted international and local visitors, bringing back life to the property that had been neglected following the demise of the previous owner.

The President acquired a half of the over 2,000 acres’ ranch from the Agriculture Finance Corporation AFC in 2015 after paying off the loan the late Murumbi had defaulted.

The other half went to a group of 99 members of the Moitanik clan of the Maasai community following a High Court ruling in Nakuru in 2011.

Ruto has recently hosted Ghana President-elect John Dramani Mahama and African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat in the now refurbished mansion that served as the holiday home of the late Murumbi and his family then known as Intona Ranch.

The mansion boasts of an airstrip and a set of houses that host staff who take care of the expansive compound which is now turning out to be the seat of power in the current administration.

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Ruto’s acquisition of the property has turned the fortunes for local residents for the better with the road leading to the home now tarmacked, security too has been enhanced.

ODM leader Raila Odinga, who has recently been hosted in the home, had in June 2017 taken Ruto to task during a campaign rally at Naarosura area in Narok over the acquisition of the over 2,000 acres property asking him to tell Kenyans how he became the owner of the property once owned by a former vice president.

“Land is a very emotive issue in Narok County. It is disappointing that instead of senior government officials in the Jubilee government helping to resolve them, they are part of the problem. Ruto should tell us how he acquired the ranch that was owned by Murumbi,” said Raila.

Murumbi was the second vice president of Kenya under President Jomo Kenyatta after he was picked to replace Raila’s father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga when the latter resigned. Murumbi’s stint in the office was short as he quit in 1966 and stayed out of politics up to the time of his death in 1990.

He spent most of his time after retiring from politics between his Muthaiga residence in Nairobi and the 2000-acre ranch where he built a 40 roomed castle where he engaged in various farming activities for many years before he died.

When this writer visited the ranch in 2013, he found the palatial residence without a single door or window, with the locals claiming that they were vandalised by the workers of the former vice president following his death and that of his wife Sheila in 2003.

The residence, several kilometres away from the world famous Maasai Mara game reserve, serves as a home to wild animals which walk in and out at their own pleasure, with the locals feeling that the property should have been put into proper use before the President took it over in 2015.

Outside the mansion, there was a swimming pool which had not been used for a very long time, with the water in it turning green due to algae, and was surrounded by bushes.

The former vice president had used the land as a collateral to acquire a loan of Sh2 million in 1978 from the AFC, which he repaid and later acquired another loan of Sh8 million in 1985, which he failed to repay due to a combination of factors, including age and ill health.

In June 2013, local residents led by Kilgoris MP Julius Sunkuli and then AFC Managing Director Lucas Meso held a meeting at the ranch in which they agreed to abide by a ruling made in 2011 by then Nakuru High Court judge William Ouko in which he ruled that the AFC and groups of 99 locals share the land in two equal proportions.

Meso informed the locals who had gone to court to claim ownership of the land that the AFC decided to sell the ranch through an auction in 2004 to recover its money and that when no buyer turned up, the organisation decided to buy it to recover the loan advanced to Murumbi.

He told the locals that AFC would take over one half of the land together with the mansion in it and then look for a buyer who will maintain it by setting up an agricultural enterprise that will create job opportunities for the locals.

No sooner had the AFC and a group of 99 individuals from the Maasai Moitanik clan reached an agreement, two brothers of the late Murumbi came out for the first time to stake claim of the 2,064 acres, saying AFC was supposed to negotiate with them and not the group that had moved to court.

The late Kitui ole Yampoi, 93 at that time, and his brother the late Olorkuniya ole Kapeen, 90 said that their family will not allow the Agricultural Finance Cooperation and a group of impostors to share out the land of the former vice president yet they and their families were still alive and that they are ready to move to court to stop the subdivision of the land.

Speaking at the Isampin home of Yampoi, the two brothers, in the company of other family members, said that they would move to court to challenge the Justice Ouko ruling.