After the Ministry of Lands and National Lands Commission (NLC) failed to establish rightful owners of a disputed 419 acres piece of land in Kiambu county, Members of the National Assembly will seek to have the final say over the fate of the controversial land.
The land is claimed by five different groups including Kenya Forest Service following a gazette notice on 1 March this year by NLC declaring that Kamiti Anmer Development Welfare Group as the rightful owners.
The other three groups are Kamiti Forest Squatters Association, Kamiti Development Association and Muungano wa Kamiti Group.
Out of the acreage, Kanu regime in 1994 directed that 300 acres be hived off and allocated to squatters and the landless.
However, KFS has maintained that the land is its property as it was never degazetted from being a forest after it was allegedly handed over to the squatters.
The National Assembly Land Committee, chaired by Kitui South MP Rachel Nyamai, toured the farm on a fact-finding mission.
Nyamai’s decision came after Lands Cabinet secretary Faridah Karoney told the committee that title deeds currently being held are irregular until the government degazzetes the land.
Lands CAS Gideon Mung’aro said the land was surveyed in 1954 and declared Central Forest in 1964.
Mung’aro told the committee that the defunct Kiambu County Council interfered with the allocation of the land, and instead awarded it to rich and influential people.
“Kamiti Forest is yet to be degazetted for any allocation to be valid. If LR No. 8390 Kamiti Anmer is procedurally de-gazetted as provided for under Section 34 of the Forest Conservation and Management Act, 2016, the allotments and titles issued to persons occupying the land can be regularized,” Mung’aro said.
The committee members were however not satisfied with Mung’aro’s answer saying his response contradicted that of the NLC who had earlier told the committee that the commission issued a notice based on the verdict that the title deeds held by Kamiti Anmer Development Association were valid.