Mining halted after rival groups clash in Kajiado over boundary

Mining activities at the Enkeseruna village in Kajiado Central have been halted after two group ranches clashed over ownership of the site.

Members of the Torosei group ranch on Wednesday morning invaded the mining site and stopped all activities until the boundary dispute is settled.

Members of Meto group ranch had leased the disputed land to miners for the extraction of mica stones.

The miners have since moved from the site and their spokesman, a liaison officer from the Meto community, Peter Katitia, said they will keep off until the matter is resolved.

Katitia said the matter is being handled by the leaders of the two communities with surveyors from Nairobi.

“Both the communities rejected the county land surveyors from participating in the process because we do not trust them,” said Katitia. 

According to Andrew Sempeta from Torosei, the land under mining has been the centre of a boundary dispute since 2018 with both group ranches claiming ownership.

Sempeta complained that the Meto group ranch members had gone ahead and undertaken mining activities on the disputed land instead of waiting for the boundary dispute to be resolved. 

He called on the Kajiado Lands Department to resolve the dispute fast and establish clear boundaries so as to quell the mounting tension between the two groups.

“The land under mining has been in dispute since 2018. Both Torosei and Meto group ranches members are claiming ownership of the land and no activities should be allowed to take place until the boundary is clearly demarcated,” Sempeta said.

Isaiah Lesisa echoed Sempeta’s sentiments adding that no investor should undertake any activities on the contested parcel of land until the Lands Department conducts a survey and establishes clear boundaries. 

“There has been a lot of political interference on the disputed land and we are urging all political leaders to keep off this land and allow the Lands Department to come and demarcate clear boundaries,” said Lesisa.

Kajiado Land CEC member Hamilton Parseina on Wednesday told the Star that the boundary dispute that was lodged in 2018 is being handled by the county government.

“There are two communities, the Ilodookilani from the Kajiado West sub-county and the Matatapo from the Kajiado Central sub-county.  When we started to resolve the dispute, each side rejected the county surveyors and we were forced to get surveyors from the Ministry of Lands in Nairobi,” said Parseina.

Parseina said the survey work, which had been done by about 80 per cent, was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

“The county had also run short of cash at the time. When we received the cash in 2022 for paying the surveyors, most of the surveyors had been transferred elsewhere in the country. This crippled the exercise again,” said Parseina.

He said the county government is assembling fresh surveyors from Nairobi to complete the job.

The county CEC member said a number of elders from other communities outside Iloodokilani and Ildamat have also been incorporated in resolving the dispute that had threatened peace in the area.

“We also have chiefs from the two communities to oversee the dispute resolution that we are undertaking as the county government,” said Parseina.

The CEC further said the area in dispute belongs to individual farmers who are known.

“Demarcation of land has been done in both group ranches and the matter at hand are land parcels that belong to individuals,” Parseina said.

Parseina said Governor Joseph Lenku, who is out of the country, picked eminent persons from the two communities and the chiefs to help in resolving the matter.

Members of the two communities embroiled in the land dispute have warned politicians from commenting on the matter.

This could be the reason why when we tried to reach out to Kajiado Central MP Memusi Kanchory, Kajiado West MP George Sunkuyia and MCAs Ibrahim Osoi (Matapato North) and Joshua Saitoti (Iloodokilani), none of them responded to our calls and messages.

The Star messaged all the leaders asking them to comment on the Enkeseruna land boundary dispute but no one responded.

We also tried to call each individual but no one picked up their calls.

Chief Letene Lenoti of Enkeseruna lamented that the Torosei Maasai morans should not have chased the investors away on Wednesday, adding that the land on which mining was being done belonged to Mzee Tumbes Nkara.

Lenoti said the mining was being done on land parcel number 1672/Meto which belongs to Nkara.

Kajiado County Commissioner Felix Watikila also condemned the chasing away of the miners and asked the county government to resolve the matter immediately.

Watikila said the morans invaded the miners on private land, adding that if there were any dispute, those from the opposing side should have waited until the matter was resolved and the real owner established.

In his keynote address during the opening of the 2nd National Conference on Alternative Justice Systems at Tangaza College, Karen, on June 25, Governor Lenku said 143 cases have been received in Kajiado.

He said the Alternative Justice System committees in the county’s various regions had received 143 disputes and managed to resolve 70 of them.

Lenku said that in any event, he was aware that historical injustices particularly relating to land may be most graphic among the pastoralist communities but is not unique to them.

“In using AJS to gain access to natural resources is an acknowledgement of historical injustices,” said the governor.  

Land disputes are common in Kajiado county with most of them revolving around boundaries and double allocation of title deeds. 

The Alternative Justice System was launched in Kajiado in 2021 by Chief Justice Martha Koome to help reduce the backlog of land dispute cases in court.