Petitioners seek MPs help to repossess land from Keen’s family

Residents of Kilifi North constituency have sought the intervention of the House to get back their land from late assistant minister, John Keen’s family.

Public Petitions Committee led by Nimrod Mbai (Kitui East) while on a fact-finding mission learnt that the land originally belonged to the Mijikenda community.

The committee was told that towards the end of the colonial era, Lily White (a colonial master) used the land on a lease tenure.

Members heard that late assistant minister John Keen took over the control of the land through Coast Development Company for agricultural purposes.

“Help my people so that they don't live in fear that they won't have a home tomorrow,”Kilifi North Constituency MP Owen Baya, who presented the petition on behalf of the residents, told the committee.

Keen is said to have demanded that every resident pays rent for the houses they built on the land.

The committee was told that the plan shortly changed as he invited residents to buy shares in his company. Each share being Sh20,000 and equivalent to one plot of 50ft x 100ft.

Many residents including churches, schools and mosques claimed they paid for the shares through Barclays and Kenya Commercial Bank and through Keen’s representatives, Philip Yaa, Paul Njoroge and Rashid Abdi Makarani.

The petitioners pray that they be granted the right to own the parcels of land that they paid for.

They also want the Committee to advise the government to revoke the title of Coast Development Company and allow for fresh adjudication in favour of the residents.

Kilifi County County Commissioner Josephat Biwott told the committee that the land disputes in Kilifi are historical stretching over 50 years back.

 “We are using arbitration to reach an agreement between the squatters and the landlords,” he stated.

The petition was filed by residents of Mnarani, Misufini, Vibandani and Kibarani sub-locations, and Tezo location.