NLC intervenes again in feud over Sh1.4bn Kwale island
Saggaf family member Muhammad - on April 24, 2018 - protests the government's failure to help them repossess their land in Kwale County. The NLC has stepped in to settle the dispute. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
A decades-old tussle over control of the expansive Wasini island, said to be worth more than Sh1.4 billion, could soon end after the National Lands Commission (NLC) intervened again to resolve the stalemate.
NLC Commissioner Esther Murugi has directed Lands officials in Kwale to fast-track the adjudication of the island so as to resolve the dispute pitting locals against the Mohamed Maula Saggaf family, which owns 289 acres on it.
Squatters and the Saggaf family have been engaged in a long-running dispute over control of the island.
In April, the government said it would survey the property after efforts to reconcile the two sides failed.
Part of the island has been home to squatters for years, and they have built tourist hotels on it.
The adjudication has been postponed several times due to resistance and hostility from the squatters, who say the process is meant to dispossess them of the property and could lead to their eviction.
But the Saggaf family has sought to allay the eviction fears, noting that it only owns a portion of the island.
“We have repeatedly declared that there is no intention of evicting any squatter, and the family will only decide on how to best deal with the squatters occupying (the part of the land that the family owns) at the conclusion of the adjudication,” said Mohamed Maula, the family’s spokesman.
The acreage of Wasini island is about 5,000-6,000 acres, Mr Maula said, and the Saggaf family owns 289 acres, which is five percent of the island.
The family has said its land does not extend into the settled areas of the island.
The 289 acres of the island have been legally owned by the family since 1908. Their undisputed ownership was confirmed by courts in 1908, 1969 and 1995.
“Wasini land grabbers must accept that in 1908, the then government issued a title deed for the full ownership of the land to the Saggaf family,” Mr Maula said
The property was originally owned by Saggaf Alawys and was inherited by his children, Hassan Nassir, Mohamed Nassir and Ahmed Nassir.
This is the second time the NLC has intervened in the dispute. In 2019 it ordered the property be returned to the family and directed that any title deeds that may have been issued to undeserving persons be revoked.
But the family has for decades been locked out of the land by cartels that the family says are working with senior government officials to frustrate the survey efforts.
