PS Nixon Korir disputes women group’s claim to police land

Claims of existence of fake documents, erroneous land transfer documents and alleged existence of double land registration titles rocked a sitting of a parliamentary committee during an ongoing inquiry into a land ownership dispute between the National Police Service and a women’s group.

 The land in dispute, located in Lang’ata Constituency currently hosts the posh West Park Police Lines in Nairobi’s South C estate among other amenities.

 The National Assembly Departmental Committee on Lands chaired by North Mugirango MP Joash Nyamoko resolved to undertake an inquiry into the matter, following a request for a statement on the same by Kiambaa MP Njuguna Kawanjiku on behalf of an aggrieved women’s group claiming the land from the National Police Service.

Lands and Physical Planning Principal Secretary Nixon Korir, who is a former area MP, while appearing before the Committee, affirmed that the land belonged to the Government and refuted the women’s claims of having been dispossessed of the same.

 The self-help group, dubbed the Wilson Mutumba Women’s Group, has been laying claim to the land in the dispute dating back to the 1980s.

The Committee is probing among other claims that a former senior official of the defunct Criminal Investigations Department (CID) could have irregularly benefited from the disputed land.

The group claims former President the late Daniel Arap Moi allocated them the land measuring approximately 26.8 hectares having been squatters on the said parcel.

The group further claims that a Irish organization helped them put up 300 residential houses.

They claim the project was abandoned due to a disagreement between the donor and the Government, resulting in members of the women’s group allocating them the incomplete houses.

In 2005, however, the then OCPD Lang’ata Police Station evicted them from the land and arrested some of them over various criminal offences.

To prevent the said eviction, the women had filed a case before the Environment and Land Division of the High Court where Justice Nyamu ruled in the group’s favour.

During the meeting, Korir told the committee that the Government had since appealed the said verdict and that it was still pending in court, affirming that the contentious parcel had always been Government land.

“The land was allocated to the Permanent Secretary National Treasury through a letter allotment Ref: 209163XI dated April 28, 2010,” noted Korir.

The MPs led by the committee chairperson questioned how the land could have reverted back to the Government given the existence of the Court verdict in the women group’s favour.

“This is a very serious matter and it mirrors many other disputes involving public land. That is why we need clarity from he state department to put this matter to rest,” noted Nyamoko.

National Land Commission (NLC)  Chairperson Gershom Otachi who also appeared before the Committee said NLC had proposed alternative dispute resolution among the concerned parties in the dispute away from the courts.

The Committee resolved to hold a subsequent joint sitting with the PS and NLC on April 15.