Nandi MP leads squatters in repossessing land from tea firm

Squatters on Thursday stormed a multi-national team firm in Nandi Hills and repossessed a 350-acre disputed land.

Over 1000 members of the Kimasas co-operative Society descended on the Tea farm on Thursday led by the area MP Benard Kitur and started fencing off.

The move follows a ruling by the national land commission and subsequent high court and the appellate court to uphold the ownership as belonging to the 1400 members of the co-operative who had earlier bought 550 acres.

The MP observed that members of the Kimasas cooperative moved into the plantation to take procession of their land.

“They were forcefully moved to 200 acres of the land they had bought while the remaining 350 acres were put under Tea by the firm…reducing the genuine owners to squatters in their own land,” the MP charged.

The cooperative members had bought 550 acres from a white settler and had subdivided among themselves before the multinational company forcefully evicted them and excised 350 acres.

Nandi governor Stephen Sang had in 2018 invited NLC to visit Nandi to hear about historical land injustices in which Kimasas co-operative society members tabled the ownership documents and the process they acquired it.

However, the tea firm failed to prove how it came into procession of the 350 lands despite holding a leasehold certificate that was generated after the eviction of the owners in 1997.

The commission ruled in favour of the poor squatters. The tea firm, however, appealed against NLC but lost in both the lower court and court of appeal.

The MP and the squatters descended on the farm on Thursday afternoon and armed with posts and fenced off the land.

The firm operation director Lear Kibii expressed outrage on“the invasion into the company’s plantation” saying they were found unaware.

He promised that the firm would issue a comprehensive statement through their lawyers.

“There is a process by which things can be carried out smoothly and I’m aware our tea firm had gone to the apex court for a stay order before the matter is resolved,” Kibii told The Star on the phone.

There were no police at the scene of the incident as members of the land-buying company went on with their fencing uninterrupted.

The chairman of the squatters Daniel Biwott said they would sue the firm for reparation and seek compensation for the 25 years of suffering.

“Our parents who sold their cattle to purchase this farm were forcefully evicted, made to suffer as destitute on their own property. They were denied to enjoy the fruits of their sweat. This is the most heinous act ever committed in an independent country,” Biwott said.

Most of the 1,400 original members have passed on while living in squalid conditions on top of rocks after their arable land was taken away.

The eviction was carried out at the height of the KANU era by police assisted by the dreaded provincial administration.