Ontulili squatters demand land after NLC ruling backing them

They have grown old and are weary after decades of a life in poverty. Landless and homeless, the grandparents are crying out for help, afraid that they are in their sunset days but have nowhere to be buried.

“If I die today, I don’t know where my body will rest and I fear that my children and grandchildren will have trouble burying me. It has been a dog’s life living in rented houses for over 30 years and it is time they heard our cries,” says 80-year-old Beatrice Nkatha.

For the past 36 years, Ms Nkatha has lived in a one-room house in Timau after she was evicted from her home in Ontulili, Buuri sub-county.

She is among 1,435 residents who claim they were forced out of their land in 1986 by Jackson Harvester Angaine, a powerful Lands minister in the Jomo Kenyatta government.

In 1975, Mzee Kenyatta ordered 2,400 acres to be excised from the Mt Kenya forest on the Meru side to settle the landless, a directive that was immediately executed.

After the founding President died in 1978, the residents said Mr Angaine started harassing and threatening them, culminating in their eviction in 1986.

Ms Rose Naitore, 50, recalled that on the day they were evicted, she was newly married and was pregnant. “They beat me up and I fell sick for several days, which resulted is a miscarriage. It was such a painful experience that I have never forgotten,” she said.

Mr Paul Kinoti, the chairman of Kiambogo Ontulili Farmers Squatters, said they started the journey of reclaiming their land in 1991 and as the case dragged on in courts, some of them gave up the fight.

Two other squatter groups laid claim to the land, escalating the dispute. They are Ontulili Mt Kenya Forest Squatters and Mt Kenya Squatters Group, with Flamingo Horticulture Kenya Ltd and Everest Enterprises listed as interested parties.

Court documents show that in 2004, Lucy Mirigo Munyi and 550 others sought orders to be settled on the land, which they said had been carved from the Mt Kenya forest to settle squatters.

The case was dismissed, and the appeal filed in Nyeri was also thrown out in 2014. Court documents also show that the Angaine family subdivided and sold part of the land to private developers.

Mr Kinoti said his group petitioned the National Land Commission (NLC) on the grounds that they had suffered historical land injustices.

After listening to the grievances, the NLC ruled that the land belonged to the squatters and in March 2019 published a notice to that effect.

“The Commission noted that the land under question was excised from the forest to benefit the squatters. The Commission recommends that the Chief Land Registrar reverts the land to the claimants,” the NLC said in the notice.

“Alternatively, the family of the late Angaine should give the claimants alternative land of equal size and value. The Chief Land Registrar registers the land in the name of the squatters and they should be settled with the assistance of the Director Land Adjudication and the Director of Surveys.”

But the Angaine family challenged the notice in the Environment and Land Court in Meru, claiming that they were not involved in the dispute before the decision was reached.

In a ruling delivered on July 7, 2021, Judge Lucy Mbugua ordered the NLC to hear the dispute afresh, noting that it had dragged on in the courts for decades.

The court agreed with the litigants that there were historical land injustices that could only be arbitrated by NLC, which is mandated under the Constitution to hear and determine such matters.

“The Commission is directed to hear the dispute afresh with the participation of all the parties herein and in accordance with the law, within a period of 12 months,” Justice Mbugua ruled, and stayed the NLC notice declaring that the land belonged to the squatters for the period the commission was required to hear the case.

After hearing the matter afresh, on July 5, the NLC ordered that the government provide land to resettle the squatters with the Angaine family contributing 25 per cent of the cost. The order rekindled the squatters’ hopes that at last they would get justice.

On Saturday, they asked the Lands ministry to acquire land as ordered by the NLC, but they accused the government of dilly-dallying and blamed politicians, saying leaders had not come out openly to push for their resettlement.

“We appeal to the government to implement the order urgently because some of our members are very old and are eager to leave an inheritance to their children before they die,” Mr Kinoti said.

Their lawyer, Mr David Mwilaria, said delays in executing the NLC order resulted from lack of political goodwill among leaders.

“We want them to demonstrate they are willing to obey the order and start the process of identifying land on which the squatters will be settled,” Mr Mwilaria said.