Ten Sisters Lose Land to State by Becky Kimani Right to Make Such Decisions,” Observes Warigia

December, 2011 Strength of a WOMANSpecial Edition: Women, Land & Property Ten sisters lose land to State BY BECKY KIMANI right to make such decisions,” observes Warigia. ast year, Irene Mwangi and She argues that the Ministry of her nine sisters owned eleven Lands failed to go through the proper acres of land in the fertile channels in procuring the land. She is rich Subukia area of Nakuru appealing to the court to cancel the District.L entire transaction that resulted in their Yet, they lost it in a flick of a land being sold off to the government. moment as the government turned The sisters met stiff opposition them into squatters in favour of from the more than 75 squatters who internally displaced persons. are mainly from the Pokot and Kamba They were thrown off the 750-acre communities who have vowed not to piece of land after their elder brother, leave the land.They are now appealing Phillip Kamau Njoroge, who was left in to the Government to remove the IDPs charge of administering the estate by from their property. their late father, disposed of it without their consent. Interim orders “We only heard on radio that The ten women have obtained internally displaced people (IDPs) interim orders stopping the were going to be taken to our land and Government from resettling IDPs on when we arrived on the scene, we were their land in Subukia Constituency. chased away,” says Mwangi. The eight sisters, their sister- in-law and a niece have obtained Horror orders against the Attorney General She watched in horror as more than and the Permanent Secretaries 265 families were moved from Pipeline in the ministries of Lands and IDP camp in lorries and ferried to the Special Programmes seeking to stop grounds, where each was allocated a resettlement of 265 displaced families two and a quarter acre plot. on the land. The elated IDPs, who after staying They have also instructed their for more than four years in a tent, lawyer to seek a court injunction on were disappointed to learn that they grounds that their property was sold were being settled on disputed land, fraudulently. The women claim that a matter which they would not take they inherited the land after the death lightly. of their parents and have produced This led to a bitter exchange of a grant issued by the High Court in words between the IDPs and girls with Nakuru in December 1997 as proof. the former being adamant that they The eight sisters received 16.2 would not vacate the land. acres of land each while their sister-in- The ten siblings who claim that law, Mary Wangari, inherited 80 acres they were allocated 240 acres of the from her husband after his death. land, disowned the sale. “We were not consulted when our Petitioners share was sold,” says Mwangi, who was Her daughter, Peninah Wangui, accompanied by her seven sisters. who is also one of the petitioners in Zipporah Warigia, one of the sisters, the case, inherited 30 acres of the How would you like your land served says that she has been instructed by farm. The eight sisters are Wangeci resettlement of the displaced persons, up ma’am? Just a dish of a title deed, the District Lands Board to collect the Mburu, Winnie Muthoni, Damaris Riri, ordered that the ‘squatters’ be moved this woman seems to say as she cash for the land that was sold, which Ziporrah Waringa, Mary Nyambura, out of the land as soon as possible. harvests tobacco. We will get there! A He denied being aware of any she says was against her will. Harriet Wanjiku, Irene Kanyi and Loice majestic she-herder, agrees. And for the “It’s forbidden in the Bible to Wanjiku. The ten women all own 239.6 disputes on the property which was desperate Kenyan women IDPs, land is sell inherited land, yet our brother is acres of Ndonga farm. procured by the Lands Ministry. the only way. forcing us to do so. It’s unfair that we Director of Settlement Moses Attempts to reach Njoroge for a — PICTURES: GENDERLINKS.ORG.ZA AND as women are still not being given the Akaranga, who had presided over the comment were futile. CORRESPONDENT Strength of a 2 Special Edition: Women, Land & Property WOMAN December, 2011 Eviction notice sparks crisis in lake region settlement schemes BY AJANGA KHAYESI ama Alice Juma including relating Kenya’s from Muhoroni most famous production of town is desperate sugar, not much has been as she grapples done to develop the area or withM difficulties in life after a eradicate extreme poverty developer issued her with an among the residents. eviction notice. While her three children are Clusters happy to be born here, Alice With parts of the who has lived on the land since deprived villages situated 1979 wishes that the village was in the sugarcane zones better recognised under the of Chemelil, Miwani and new Government policies. She Muhoroni, as well as those is considered a squatter in her situated in the fertile Koru own community. Hills, small clusters of huts Relatively old enough to and cattle kraals stand recall events, Alice, 50, admits scattered on the expansive that her age has witnessed land. challenges among land invaders, As Alice worked over her developers or intruders. young maize plantation to However, the greatest challenge uproot weeds on her small that she is now facing is that acreage farm as it is planting of acquiring a title deed for the season in the area, a group parcel of land she occupies in of men walked hurriedly Muhoroni. into her compound to Allegations of irregularities deliver an eviction notice. in the land registration process “If evictions are has sparked off land crisis executed, the county would in the lakeside region where be facing another group of over 4,000 residents are facing Internally Displaced Persons eviction in Miwani, Chemelil, (IDPs), a situation which Muhoroni and Koru areas. may take long before durable Other affected persons in the solutions are found,” she eviction saga are Jacob Osida of observes. the Nyando Human Rights Koru, Patrick Ojwang (Koru), According to Alice, the Advocacy and Development Peter Odhiambo (Fort Ternan), current number of expected (NYAHURIADEN). Wilson Chelegoi, Odongo Obare evictions in the township is Leading lawyers from and Joshua Ochola among large, though patterns are Kituo Cha Sheria went to the others. They are all challenging fluid and accurate data may be homestead which she claims land rights through Muhoroni higher than what is being seen her late husband Joseph Juma Division Squatters Association. on the ground. Ochola was buried 15 years ago, Having no one to turn to, leaving behind four children and Poverty Alice sought legal advice from several grandchildren under her Sandwiched between the Kituo Cha Sheria through care. The compound has now vast sugarcane farms and been fenced off by Muhoroni Muhoroni Sugar Factory, Farmers Co-operative society. lies old ironed roofed but dilapidated houses, Free legal services enclosed with a handful “Started in 2006, as a maize plantations, which is non-profit and non-political Top: Mama Alice Juma’s two of her three children walk an indication of the rate of organisation, Nyahuriaden home after assisting at the family farm. The children poverty in the area. arose out of the need by will become vagabonds if they are evicted. Below: Our As travellers plying the residents of Nyando District land, our life: An official of Kituo cha Sheria, Nyando Kisumu-Nairobi railway pass for legal aid in matters Branch consults with squatters over the pending through the township, little of governance access to eviction. — PICTURES: AJANGA KHAYESI do they know that some justice as well as promotion residents living in Muhoroni and protection of human The caseload includes notice in 1993 after developers town are challenged with rights,” says Judith landowners and farmers, destroyed farm crops such as expulsion from owned “If evictions are Ochanda, coordinator of the some of whom still live on the sugarcane, cassava and maize. parcels of land? organisation. formerly white settlers’ parcels “The Chief Magistrate’s “Long standing disputes executed, the county Bringing free legal of land; migrant workers on the court in Kisumu ruled that the over land ownership have services closer to the sugarcane farms and business status quo be maintained on the taken shape since 1963. would be facing residents who really need, people in the urban centres of disputed piece of land,” explains The disputes followed the particularly the poor and Muhoroni and Chemelil. Ochola. white settlers in the area another group of marginalised members of Muhoroni Settlement “However, land invaders and the new government the community, the justice Scheme was meant for those are up in arms against the at independence in an Internally Displaced centre has held clinics, whose parents worked for the peasant man because the area agreement that the Persons (IDPs), a capacity building and human white settlers “but none of us is developing industrially and European had at will rights awareness in the has got a title deed or allotment is agriculturally fertile,” notes owned parcels of land situation which may lakeside region. letter from Ministry of Lands, Patrick Ojwang. to Africans to settle on,” To lift the living an advantage favouring land Rusi Chelangat whose explains Joshua Ochola take long before standards of the community invaders,” says Joshua Ochola, parents worked for 13 white of Muhoroni Division in Nyando through holistic secretary to the squatters settlers in the area, is among Squatters Association. durable solutions are and integrated approaches association.

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