Fresh details have now emerged that a Three Star Hotel allegedly sitting on a grabbed piece of land is part of the reasons Embakasi Ranching Company Limited shareholders will wait longer for their title deeds.
A senior government mandarin has been implicated in the alleged land grabbing case of 16 acres piece of land comprising of 25 amalgamated plots, The Informer has learnt.
A faction of the shareholders have demanded surrender of the contested piece of land to legitimate bonifide members effectively threatening to put titling process at the that commenced last year in September into disarray.
Last month, through a public notice, Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney said the exercise earlier scheduled for April 12, 2021 was put off to ensure compliance with the revised Covid-19 control protocol.
“It’s sad that despite us fighting for this land for all those years, we have never acquired our parcels of land. We have top powerful government officials who grabbed this land without even minding us,” said John Tabania a member of the scheme.
Tabania who has been in the scheme for over ten years alleged that the officer allocated himself the land when he was a senior officer working with government in a different capacity.
“We have always witnessed and elaborated scheme by these government officials to frustrate us. They have compromised even the area government officials to ensure we have not occupied our land which we have been fighting for over the years,” he added.
The titling, which is being conducted at the Embakasi Ranching Company offices in Ruai, was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta at the KICC in August last year.
The 24,000-acre ranch was acquired by the company 45 years ago. Members are mainly from Nairobi, Kiambu and Murang’a counties. Some have since died.
President Kenyatta cautioned the title deed holders against being duped into selling their properties.
“When you get your title deed, please be careful not to be cheated to sell the land you’ve fought for all these years. Keep it and use it to help yourself, your children and your grandchildren,” he advised.
Had the shareholders been issued with the title deeds, the ranch would have been dissolved by February 2018.
Another member of the scheme Joseph Chege appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to demand full disclosure about ownership details on case by case basis to rein on the rogue officials.
Chege said the biggest problem has been with the former group of leaders who have refused to exit office protecting interests of the government officials.
He noted that in 2019, they held elections and elected new officials who were even recognised by the registrar of companies where James Njoroge was elected by members to replace Leah Mathenge.
According to Chege, Mathenge has been at the helm of the 44-year-old real estate firm despite losing in the elections which were conducted following the death of long-serving chairperson the late Mwangi Thuita.
Earlier, Lands CS Karoney noted that the slow pace of issuance of title deeds at the company was due to a lack of original and proper succession documents by some landowners.
“One of the challenges we have faced is the lack of proof of ownership … We urge all landowners to work with their lawyers to get the proper documents so that we can fast-track the processing of their title deeds,” she said.
The CS added that the ministry is capturing the biometric data of the landowners as part of the ongoing digitalisation process.
Many landowners and buyers affiliated to Embakasi Ranching are in a similar predicament.
They decry that they acquired land but cannot dare set foot as the parcels have been occupied by strangers who have put up bungalows and maisonettes worth millions.
“Others have not been shown their plots even after fully paying for them years ago. The ongoing titling process can only address widespread complaints of multiple allocations and swapping of plots if ownership legitimacy is evaluated on a case by case criteria as we are demanding.” Chege observed.
Police and courts are overwhelmed with land disputes revolving around Nairobi’s biggest land buying company.
The ranch was founded in 1975 during the reign Kenya’s founding father, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta comprising of 13,495 original shareholders mainly from Kiambu and Murang’a.
Politicians and leaders like the late Kiambu politician Njenga Karume and Nairobi politician, the late Muhuri Muchiri, among others were instrumental in its formation.
Overtime, the company has been plagued by leadership wrangles triggered by competing interests among loyalists of the duo.