- Residents said government officials were colluding with unscrupulous wealthy farmers to grab the over 2,000 acre piece of land.
- The land dispute was taken to court but in September 2022 Environment and Land Court Chief Magistrate Lucy Mutai overruled the plaintiffs.
Residents from Kisiriri village on the outskirts of Rumuruti town in Laikipia West Constituency are up in arms with the government over alleged plans to evict them.
The residents claim the government intends to evict them from the farm they have lived on for over three decades.
According to their spokespersons, Ibrahim Lesyian and Wilson Leshau, some government officials have been issuing them threats and asking them to vacate the land before they are forcefully evicted.
Speaking to the press in Rumuruti, residents said government officials were colluding with unscrupulous wealthy farmers to grab the more than 2,000 acre piece of land.
Mirriam Waithera and Veronicah Moraa said they have invested most of their resources to cultivate and develop the land, but some of their equipment and crops were destroyed by security officers.
The residents claim some investors bought off land where they have been living for years and were now being forced out.
They said they have incurred huge losses as a result and have nowhere else to go.
The land dispute was taken to court as residents claimed they were the right owners of the land, but in September 2022, Environment and Land Court Chief Magistrate Lucy Mutai overruled the plaintiffs.
Residents said they were allocated the land in 1992 under orders made by then President Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, and their occupation of the land had been peaceful, continuous, and uninterrupted for more than 30 years.
The pastoralists’ community had filed the cases before Nanyuki Chief Magistrates ELC Case No 47 of 2018—Kisiriri Community Harry George Jennings and two others seeking to be declared the owners of the land along the River Ewaso Narok and Pesi River.
They sought a permanent injunction to restrain the defendants from encroaching onto the land, evicting them, or interfering with their possession and use of the land.
The community was declared to have illegally invaded the plot of land registered as LR 5197 and LR 2496, as they did not have title documents to prove ownership.
In the ruling, the magistrate declared Samburu, Maasai and Turkana herders under the Kisiriri pastoral community who had settled in the Jennings Farm in Laikipia as illegal occupants as failed to prove ownership of the parcel of land.