•Homa Bay County Lands Registrar Edward Bosire said they visited the land before recommending the formation of a task force to end the conflict.
•County Commissioner Moses Lilan and other senior government officials will comprise the committee.
Image: ROBERT OMOLLO
Homa Bay Lands Registrar Edward Bosire has formed a task force to determine the ownership of a disputed 96-hectare piece of land in Ndhiwa.
The task force will investigate allegations some people grabbed the land from the Kachuth community in the Kwabwai ward, Ndhiwa constituency.
County Commissioner Moses Lilan and other senior government officials will comprise the committee.
Its final decision will determine whether the land belongs to the individuals or the community.
Members of the Kachuth community registered complaints with the Lands Registrar saying some group of people had irregularly possessed the land.
They argued that the land was given to them to source their livelihoods.
Homa Bay County Lands Registrar Edward Bosire said they visited the land before recommending the formation of a task force to end the conflict.
One of the roles of the task force will be to check on documents that purported to have been obtained by the current owners of the land.
“The documents will be taken through forensic analysis to determine whether they are genuine or not. Until the task force completes its work, the status quo remains,” Bosire said.
The land register said he has power under the Land Registration Act to revoke the title deed if it is determined that they were illegally acquired.
“The department will comply with the recommendations of the task force. Those who will not be satisfied with the decision would be allowed to go to court,” he said.
During their meeting, some members of the Kachuth community asked Bosire to expedite the process for an amicable solution.
The land officer said they established that the disputed land was not named during an adjudication process.
It is also established that the land was initially part of Ruma National Park.
“There is no registered community land within the Kamdar registration section. The available land was the one curved off by Ruma National Park that was left out during the fencing of the park,” Bosire said in his report.
But during the fencing of the park, the community through their political leaders had an agreement that the land be left for residents to use for different agricultural activities.
According to Bosire, adjudication officers from Nairobi visited the land more than 10 years ago and measured it before allocating numbers for each piece of land.
The documents were then transferred to the lands office in Homa Bay.
He said the task force will examine the documents and establish how they were acquired.
“The task force will visit the land and take its measurements as well as get information from Ruma National Park to establish if the land originally belongs to them,” he said.